DAIRYING liV AUSTRALIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2845, 23 September 1908, Page 8

DAIRYING liV AUSTRALIA.

The dairying industry in Australia is making rapid strides, and some of tho : State Governments are giving valuable practical assistance, in many respects being in advance of New Zealand. The South Australian Government has purchased 1600 acres at Turretficld, 10 niile3 north-cast of Gjawlcr, chiefly for the purpose of encouraging a, good breed of milch cows and of demonstrating the best methods in up-to-date dairy practice. TiiePara Rher runs through the property, which was purchased at lOgs per acre. Mr P. H. Suter, the Government dairy ejepert, will make the place his headquarters, and will take in half a dozen students for a 6pegial course in dairying. It is proposed to keep- 50 to 60 cows in constant milking. The milking herd will consist principally of shorthorns, with a few head of Jerseys, red polls, Ayrshires, and Guernseys. Theae latter will be used chiefly for cross-breed-ing, a3 may be deemedi advisable, and for educating students as to the special qualities of the different breeds. Seven or eight hundred acres will be utilised' for the dairy farm, and the remainder will bo leased to farmers on tho closer-settlement principle. A part of the flats will bd irrigated to grow fodder for milk-produc-tiou. The Barossa Main, which runs past tho property, will be tapped-, and water will also be pumped from the river. Mr Suter is pr&paring to lay down five acres under lucerne in September as a begin- r ning. Special attention^ will also be given to the growing of foreign grasses suitable for feed, and a silo will be erected with a capacity of 150 to 200 tons. Pigs will be kept to use up the by-proJucts profitably, and only Berkshires will be kept — at any rate, for the present. The rainfall is about 18in a year, and the farm will be only three and a-half miles from the Angaston railway when constructed. The giant strides the dairying industry is making in .Queensland (writes tho correspondent of the Sydney Mail) may bo gauged by the value of butter exports dur- I ing the past five years. In 1903 the item ' was worth £49,804; 1904, £34-4,943; 1905, £455,863; 1905, £582,326; and 1907, £503,582. Tiie increased number of person* who ha%e given greater prominence to dairying operations was not reflected in a. corresponding- increase in the butter out- , put. Tl)eie were 13,291 establishments in the State engaged in the industry. Of these 1329 handled milk only, 3190 were cream extractors, and 8772 made butter. Tho quantity of milk handled waa 60,395.502ga1, 52,623,129 gal of which waa« <le%otr-rl io the production of butter, 2.666,?83g«l to cheese, and 5,609,090 gal oilier wise coneurn-ed, mostly for donieetifl

purposes. Of the 22,789,1581b of butter produced, factories made 20,828,0801b, or 91 per cent. The total output showed a slight increase of 42,5651b over the figures km* 1906, but factory butter was best bj) 445,0051b, and farmers' butter in excess by 487,5701b. Districts which produced' one millions pounds and upwards were: Too* woomba, 4,0818841b; Brisbane, 3,111,7781b J Warwick, 1,665,8991b; Ipswich, l,6ie, 4011b ;j and Beaudesert, 1,085,1851b.