STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2928, 27 April 1910, Page 7

STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES.

Br Droteb. Wwkly Stack Sates: f Monthly: Burjiside, Wednesdays Ngapara, first ThursA.hburton, Tuesdays day in each month . ,t i»r j- „A n „ a Glenavy, second WedAdding on, Wednesday* d *'. h th Wwareka J*' I™* 1 ™* Duciroon, second FriJunciion, Tuesdays day fa ; a<;h Fortnightly: Clinton, Palmerston, Bulclutha, Fridays Winton, and WaiGore, Tuesdays kcuaiti. Oamaru, Tuesdays | Periodically: InTercargili, Tuesdays ,Heriot, Kolso, Kyeburn

At Burnside last -week the yarding was small, yet lambs were easier. Mutton remained steady. At Addingto,n prices were fully one-eighth of a penny per lb lower for lambs, with an easier tendency both for mutton and lamb. The latest cables from London report the '"frozen meat market weaker, owing to heavy stocks arriving and afloat." I have expected this, as the output from New Zealand this season will be very large. Whilst we may expect something less for meat during the coming months skins are increasing in value, and there is the concession of winter freights, which will be about less after May 20.

The figures of the Government returns up to March 31 show substantial progress in New Zealand exports. The main items axe wool, frozen meat, and dairy produce, in the order named. The gold export for the last three years has been steady at about £2,000,000 per annum. Taking dairy produce first the following figures of the exports for each vear show the great strides this industry has made in 10 years :

The export values as at March 31, 1910, as compared with 1905, were as follows: 1910. 1905. Wool .. .. .. £5,537,861 £5,380,193 Frozen Meat .. £3,393,882 £2,639,316 Dairy Produce .. £2,822,081 £1,695,030

The enormous increase in dairy produce —over one million sterling in value —in five years has not taken place at the expense or to the detriment of the export of wool or frozen meat. Wool remains about stationary, although it was set down as £6,063,436 in 1908, which was probably an over-estimate of value. I fully expect that in two or three years the dairy produce export will be greater than frozen meat; nor do I think it improbable that within 10 years it will stand at the head of the list of New Zealand exports -in, value, as wool does now. It is satisfactory to note also that with the increase in our ■dairy produce export the quality has received attention. Last year <ve had great trouble and much adverse comment on our butter, because of water-logging —a course which some foolish people advocated, in spite of the advice of the dairy experts, and also of the best firms in London. Happily, the factories generally saw their mistake, and this year, although a very little Australian butter was found to contain excessive moisture, the New Zealand butter has been found free from this defect so far.

To show that out butter is satisfactory I quote from Messrs Wed del and Co.'s report of March 11: —The " possibility of a, stronger market close at hand" mentioned last week has now materialised, and prices are fully 8s per cwt higher than a week ago. This extraordinary advance dn March is unparalleled in the colonial butter trade, and following a rise of 4s in the previous week, would, under any but most abnormal conditions, appear most dangerous. The one thing certain is that the supply of butter has not been for somo time sufficient to meet the demand, especially since the end of January, and at present no one can foresee how long this existing state of things is going to last. In. ordinary times present prices would burst the market, but the times are extraordinary, and. it is difficult to prophesy what the immediae future will be. The present strong position of the butter market is to some extent due to the almost total absence of inferior and secondary qualities. Nothing checks the consumer's demand more than bad quality. This year Australian, New Zealand, and Argentine butters have been

excellent, with the result that nearly every family, finding the butter so good, has increased its consumption.

I am glad to say that so far as the South Island is concerned the export of inferior butter has been very small indeed. Much of it came from the backblocks in days past, but now that cheese factories are established there the farmers who used to make this butter find a much ii'cre profitable outlet for their milk in supplying the cheese factory. As time goes on I hope this will be more than ever the case, and I believe the same thing s going on in the North Island. There is much in what Messrs Weddel and Co. say in re inferior butter spoiling our market. A friend of mine while staying in Glasgow lately visited several of the leading produce men and grocers. They all told him that New Zealand butter was cheap inferior stuff. They had seen it and tried it. The fact of the matter was that they had never seen New Zealand butter. All they had seen was New Zealand milled butter. My friend tried to show them that New Zealand butter was quoted next highest to Danish on the London market, but they were too busy to inquire into that, matter. So far as Scotland is concerned I don't think New Zealand butter will ever make much headway there. Danish butter lands at Leith daily, and is distributed all over Scotland. It is excellent, and made to their taste very salt. Scotchmen are dour and conservative in their ideas. Our cheese, lam glad to say from all the reports I have seen, is giving great satisfaction, many preferring it to Canadian. One report tells us that the impiovement in New Zealand cheese quality is as marked as the decline in Canadian quality.

So far as quality is concerned our dairy produce reflects credit on the manufacturers and on the Government dairy staff —the commissioner, instructors, and graders,— who ar-> a hard-working, enthusiastic body of men. They work in perfect harmony with the makers of cheese and butter. All that is satisfactory, and the improvements now to be looked for are from the milk suppliers, whose best interests will be served not in worrying themselves to get the buyers to pay more for their produce than it is worth—as even if successful in this the value to them is small, —but in the improvement of their milk supply and in the improvement of their cattle by weeding out unprofitable cows and feeding good ones in thoir place, and feeding them properly.

An account of the Dalefield Cow-testing Association's operations appeared in last week's Witness, and should be studied. The Dalefield dairy-farmers' experience is that a cow-testing association pays-that is, it means money to them. This is the universal testimony wherever cow-testing associations have started in Canada, Denmark, and now in New Zealand. I commend this matter to all South Island dairyfarirers as one of supreme importance. There is another matter with money it I also commend to them—viz., pasteurising the whey at the factories. Thirty cheese factories in the Dominion now do this, and all should be doing it. Then whey cou d be safely fed to pigs, and money would roll in.

The proposed auction sales suggested by the South Island Dairy Association are causing a good deal of interest both in London and the colonies. The New Zealand correspondent of the Pastorahsts Review says :—The movement towards a better system of marketing dairy produce has been given additional force by the manner in which some of the consignments to Home firms under a guarantee of a stated price have been dealt with. The outputs of certain 'factories thus contracted for have been openly offered for sale in the United Kiingdorr at rates affording no margin upon, the guaranteed prices, with the consequence that the price of all New Zealand goods was broken down until these particular lines were off the market. The system of consignment under a guarantee of price, receiving an advance, without recourse, of the amount of the guarantee, is utterly immoral commercially, and it will be well for the trade when it comes to an end. When the consignments are placed in the hands of weak holders the consignor has even less chance of obtaining more than the bare guarantee. The weakness of New Zealand butter in the London market at certain points of this season (particularly in the middle of December) is attributed to these consignments being forced for sale.

In reference to what the correspondent says in re forward selling, this was not confined to firms who adopted the pernicious system of advance without recourse; it was also done by firms with consignments not so advanced against. In consigning it is a great matter to see thafno one firm has more than it can handle. There are good firms who could handle well 500 on 1000 tons of butter or cheese who could not handle double that quantity to advantage. A few, say five or six, good firms in Lorwkfa. could handle all New Zealand produce well. Quantity should be limited to each one's capacity. I believe the handing over of all our produce to one firm, as has been advocated, would not be a good idea at aIL.

The shipments of dairy produce fron. New Zealand this month were:— Boxes butter. Crates cheese. Rimutaka, .. 20,369 17,527 lonic 21,065 15,609 41,434 33,136

There is a substantial increase of 19,912 boxes of butter and 6262 crates of cheese, as compared with the shipments in April last yea*. Included in the above the cheese shipments (no butter was sent) from Bluff and Dunedin were :—Rimutaka —from Bluff 3489 crates, from Dunedin 681 crates;, loi ic—from Bluff 3134 crates, from Dunedin BSS crates ;—total from Bluff, 6623 crates; from Dunedin, 1506 crates. There was a decrease of 205 crates from Bluff and 661 from Dunedini, as compared with April, 1909. The late long spell of dry weather ha? had some effect on the milk' supply, but I think it would be well to see if the stamina and staying powers of the cows are not also at fault.

Y ear. v —Butter.cwt. £ 1901 790,160 1902 219,493 983,224 1903 263,196 1,268,769 1904 314,319 1,416,484 1905 342,853 1,514,156 1906 300,106 .. .. 303,330 1,443,284 1907 1,522,113 1908 271,323 1,338,393 1909 275,956 1,422,198 1910 322,070 1,635,373 The greatest increase however, is in cheese, as the following figures show: — —Cheese.Year. owt. £ 1901 109,152 248,883 1902 86,476 189,992 1903 74,611 181,604 1904 .. .. 86,535 206,870 1903 82,421 180,874 265,084 1903 ... ... ... 107,825 1907 .. ., ... 162,913 449,676 1908 232,673 792,318 1909 865,456 1910 441,787 1,186,708