CONDITION OF FARMS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19132, 29 September 1936, Page 4

CONDITION OF FARMS

PASTURES AND SHEDS EFFECT ON QUALITY G LSBOE N E BUTTERFAT The necessity for good farm and pasture conditions for the production of a finest cream was stressed at the annual meeting of the Okitu Co-operative Daily Company, Limited, to-day by the chairman of directors, Mr. E. R. Renner. “L would like to stress the point,” he said, “that your factory is now operating practically at 100 per cent efficiency, and that the company wants the assistance of suppliers in connection with the delivery of high grade cream. Although we have the most modern machinery procurable' for taking feed flavour out of cream, we cannot, nor can anyone else, make a top grade butter out of a -second grade cream. There is a good deal of truth in the saying that the butter is made 'on the farm.’ SMELL OF PENNYROYAL “In the first place, as I have told you before, you must have good pastures to get a finest cream. I have seen farms on which men were milking cows, so overrun with pennyroyal that you could get the smell from the road without going into the paddocks at all. That was in the autumn, in a wet season, at Tolaga Bay. Such a state of affairs on some farms cannot be avoided, ot course, and the vacreator does good work with the cream off such farms, but, of course, the suppliers on this class ot country cannot expect to get finest grade cream when the weed is at that stage. “There are, however, many farms where there are clean pastures, and from such farms there .is no reason at all why suppliers should not- get at least 90 per cent of finest grade cream over the season. If the cream is in good order when it is put on the lorry, distance has little or no effect on the quality. We have proved this over and over again,- so I would stress again the importance of seeing that your cream is light when it leaves your farm. This applies everywhere, but especially to cream that has to come long distances. Cleanliness, sterilisation and cooling are essential, but will not in themselves necessarily give a. finest grade cream. INADEQUATE FARMS “In England some counties are noted tor their excellent butter, and this fact is attributed by experts to the excellence of tlie pastures in those counties. It is preferable to go 100 miles to get good cream off good pastures than to get cream produced close to the factory from paddocks which are infested with pennyroyal and other weeds which give the milk a bad taint. Many districts are eminently suited lor the production of a very good quality cream, and some will never he much good for that purpose, but we can all do our bestwith the facilities at our disposal, and it is up to you to do your best for the company.

“As I travel round the country sometimes I wonder why some farms were ever made into dairy farms. I see sheds put in places where it is impossible to get good drainage. I see farms that have no adequate water supply either fqr the shed or the stock, and good, dean water for both is necessary on a dairy farm. I see others where the cows continually in the wet weather have to plough through a sea of mud to get to the. cow-shed, and generally speaking, the worse the conditions on the farm and/or in the shed, the more the supplier blames the factory if he does not get finest cream. On the other hand the supplier with a good farm, a good herd, and one who knows, his job, seldom complains about anything. He is too much occupied in his own job and seeing that it is done properly to find time to ring the manager to tell him that he is die last person in New Zealand to be put in charge of the grading of cream.”