Chilling Margin Not For All Milk Producers

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26719, 13 March 1948, Page 5

Chilling Margin Not For All Milk Producers

The Farm

Town milk producers who have installed refrigeration plant for chilling milk will not necessarily receive payment of the chilling margin of id a gallon. This information, when given to the executive of the Town Milk Producers’ Federation by the director of milk marketing, Mr K. H. Innes, was received rather unfavourably, ancl appeared scarcely in line with the agreement made last year, says a statement issued to the Daily Times by Federated Farmers. Under certain circumstances, said Mr Innes, milk was double-chilled. It was chilled on the farm and then further chilled at a balancing station prior to being carted to a treating house in some districts. His decision, he said, had to be that the chilling margin could be paid only once, either to the producer or to the balancing station. Only under extenuating circumstances could he agree to consider recommending payment of the margin to both the producer and the balancing station.

That decision came as a bombshell to the producers’ executive. Members felt that the contract implied direct payments to those producers who fulfilled the refrigeration requirements. They had worked on that assumption since the agreement was made last year, and in their opinion the essence of successful chilling was that the process was carried out on the farm.

The margin paid will be different in cases where the producer carries out only one part of the process of chilling and holding the milk in a chill room. After a full discussion, the director agreed that, in the case of a producer chilling his milk by use of an aerator only, the margin paid would be 0.33 d a gallon. The full a gallon would be paid only if the chilled milk were held at a low temperature in a proper chill room. Similarly, if the milk were merely held in a chill room and not previously passed over an aerator, 0.33 d a gallon was the margin fixed. The previous basis of payment was that id a gallon was paid when only one of the processes was carried out. Reduction in Duty

On Baling Twine

As a result of representations made by Federated Farmers, the Minister of Customs has authorised “a very substantial reduction” in the rate of duty on treated or impregnated twines for use with baling machines when those twines are imported from the United States, the principal source of supply. The federation asked for the abolition of the duty on baling twine at this time when local manufacturers were unable to meet requirements. No duty was, moreover, charged on baling wire. Writing for the Minister of Customs. Mr H. E. Combs, M.P., said that he regretted that under the Customs Act it' was not possible to eliminate the duty even as a temporary measure. The action he had taken represented the maximum concession that could lawfully be made but he would bear the federation’s representations in mind with a view to seeing if later it might be possible to take legislative action in the direction desired.