THAT CHEESE AGAIN.

Southland Times, Issue 21420, 15 June 1931, Page 3

THAT CHEESE AGAIN.

To the Editor.

Sir, —To-day the quality of New Zealand cheese is a vitally important matter and various reasons for its deplorable deterioration are being voiced in the columns of the Press. During the earlier years of this century New Zealand cheese more than held its own against the Canadian article in the British markets and undoubtedly do the same to-day. Just think how useful that extra £25 per ton would be to our farmers to-day and it easily could have been ours. Why not ? Milk to-day must be quite as good or better than ever before. Factories to-day are very much better equipped with labour-saving machinery and more men to do the manual work. The pasteurizer is a boon to correct “fishy milk,” a chemically pure culture is available as a starter, cheese presses are much improved and yet the quality of our cheese has gone back. There must be reasons; let us look for them. Lately a few of us old hands with 20 or more years of actual experience in cheese-making, have been discussing the matter. Unknown I have strolled into factories to see modern methods and I’m not a bit surprised that the quality has gone back so badly. When we made the cheese which often topped the Canadian in price we followed strictly the Canadian methods of manufacture as taught us by Mr J. B. Mac Ewan- To-day some of the most essential parts of this method are discarded. I read the report of a meeting of farmers held in Invercargill lately when a Mr Ross of the Dairy Division tried to explain the causes of the backward movement. I was utterly disappointed in him in every way. Is standardized cheese to be blamed? I say no, or if it is at present, it need not be so. Let me demonstrate. Ordinary milk as received in factories contains from 3 per cent, to 6 per cent, of butter-fat, say three per cent in October, gradually increasing to 6 per cent, in AprilMay. One part of the operation in cheesemaking is gradually varied to agree with the butter-fat content in the milk. First grade can thus be easily made throughout the season so far as the butter-fat is concerned but the cheese containing most butter-fat is expectedly the best, although I have never seen it graded so. Standardized cheese is made from milk robbed of a proportion of its original butter-fat—Jersey milk usually containing 6 per cent, or 7. per cent, of butter-fat, is robbed in one of two ways of say half of this butter-fat—and then made into cheese in the ordinary way the same as milk which received contained only 3 per cent, butter-fat. Now, Sir, where is the difference? An expert can distinguish between the richer and poorer cheese but the public never. Only if the milk is robbed of all or nearly all its but-ter-fat content can any real harm be done because the cheese-maker tries to substitute moisture for butter-fat to give bulk and weight and gain. He sells water. The butter made from the ' part of cream extracted is profit. In a first-class cheddar cheese the amount of moisture must , be limited, strictly limited. The blame for our position in the cheese market to-day must be carried by the Dairy Division. You ask why. Because it alone cap compel the factory managers to make a better article and ought to be able to show them the way to do so. How’s it to be done? Quite easy. Let them grade the rubbish down to 60 points if necessary. They used to do that in my time. Cheese now graded 93 points would then have been 88 points. The first step I would take to remedy the present state of affairs would be the radical reorganization of the Dairy Division from the top downwards. While I was in conversation with a

grader not very long ago he said the British markets to-day didn’t want the silky textured, full, close-bodied cheese which could be shaved into wafers as made in my time, but rather a nice soft, juicy cheese such as could be eaten with a strong handled spwon and sure enough we have it now. It is the usual thing now for factory managers to accompany any shipments of doubtful quality down to the* grading store to be present during grading operations with much benefit to themselves, not in information but points gained. My next move would be some alterations in the labour laws. Union hours were.unknown when the good cheese was made. To ; day the cheese-making operations must respond to the clock and all work be finished up at 4.30 or 5 p.m., whether the curd be matured or not. Now, as the processes of making good cheese depend upon chemical action changes, requiring more or less than any specific time, decided correctly only by test, not time, and often varying in the diSerent vats, it is impossible to regulate these changes so correctly that the whole of the work can be finished at any regular given time and a best quality article produced. If h vat of milk is sent forward too quickly a more or less inferior article is the result; but the work will be finished early. If on the other hand the work goes too slowly, the curd must be either waited on or put into the hoops before it is ready with the result that you will have a loose open cheese. It’s useless to tell me that a few factories in the North Island have ruined the name of New Zealand cheese. In my judgment the quality of the Southland cheese has been going back for years, quite enough to lose a good name and bring the price down. If you know anything about good cheese just go into the shop and see for yourself the poor stuff they are selling; open, cracked, brittle and juicy, blue spots and streaks. Great stuff, eh ? I am quite sure that better chees could be made in Southland to-day than was ever made in earlier times. But to do this we must have men who study their employers’ welfare a little, whose minds are on the success of their work, not on the clock and overtime. I think I could yet go into a factory for a week or so and demonstrate by results, on the basis of “no cure, no pay," that New Zealand can hold her own against Canada. You may give my name, Sir, to any you deem interested meantime.—l am, etc., OLD HAND. Invercargill, June 5, 1931. P.S.: The grading points to-day are as high as in my time. The price of cheese is 25/- per cwt. less compared with Canadian. Why ?