TOWN and COUNTRY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume I, Issue 79, 12 March 1931, Page 3

TOWN and COUNTRY.

FREQUENT offers for both butter and cheese have been available during the week, but there is nothing to report regarding sales in the Stratford district, since the Stratford Dairy Company disposed, of 1,500 boxes of butter at Is- l 4 dDairy company meetings are now being held. Midhirst has decided to advance 1 1 d for the February supply of cream, and. it is confidently anticipated that cheese companies will not advance less than 9d. , There is still a good showing of pasture feed throughou the district, and yesterday’s warm rain should do a great deal to freshen up the grass.

CARDIFF PAYS OUT 9d. The Cardiff Dairy Company, at its monthly meeting yesterday, decided to advance fid for the February milk supply for cheese-making. LESS RAGWORT More attention has been paid to spraying ragwort in Central Taranaki and there is considerably less show ing, than was the case a few days ago. “MIND YOUR BUSINESS” Sound advice was given by Mr. C. A, Marchant, chairman of the Cardiff Dairy Company, when he mentioned at the factory managers’ conference at Patea last week that “finance is the guiding star of the industry, and urged that it woujd be wise if all factories looked after their own business rather than worrying about what other factories are doing. He urged also that it would be well if they could hold their cheese longer in store before shipment, but added that advances to suppliers were so close up to the market values that it was found impossible to do so. In earlier days, he said, cheese was seldom less than a month in store and even more. AYRSHIRE’S SPLENDID PERFORMANCE At the last meeting of the Taranaki Ayrshire Breeders’ Association the chairman commented on the splendid performance established by an Ayrshire cow, Ghapelhill Jean. V., in the United States, as reported in the “Ayrshire Digest,” showing that after taking the grand championship at the Eastern States’ Exposition she returned home and made 2,3761 b. ot milk and 821 b. fat for the month of October. BUTTER IN PATS A strong plea for sending Home more butter in lib. pats was made in Taranaki recently, and this is a question which would well repay investigation, but, of course, it is desirable to do the ‘‘patting" at the other end. RECORD FAT LAMB PRODUCTION Some very creditable performances in fat lamb production have come to light this season, and several records have been mentioned* and broken by later tallies. What certainly appears to be a record in Southland has been reported this week, and a very high standard: will have to he reached by anyone exceeding it. A total of 365 lambs were drafted from. 270 ewes on. the property, ot Messrs. Goul Bros., of Otautau, and only 19 lambs remained to be fattened by artificial means. The lambs drafted averaged 14s 8d each, which must be considered an extremely high average for this season.. The. owners maintain a mixed farm, with a fair number of dairy cows, . and on account themselves more successful in their farming operations this season than many others in the province.

PACKING CHEESE HOOPS The careless filling of cheese hoops is the subject 01 an interesting circular issued by the N.D,A. sent out to dairy factories with a request that managers should “show assistants how that should be done.” The circular is headed.. "For More profit- —examine this,” and an illustration is given of cheese hoops, one packed correctly and the other carelessly. ■ -•-- • r The circular then adds: “Here is shown the effect of care in packing cheese hoops on the texture of cheese. The two examples of cheese were carelessly packed and show vacuums in alignment and other samples show the result of 'careful ' packing. “It lias been found by\careful trial at, Massey College that the better method of packing curd is when the cheese hoop is packed to add small quantities of curd followed by careful ramming. Then the cheese does not develop slit openness to such an extent as would follow when- the curd is added in large quantities and less Carefully rammed.” A NEW WORLD RECORD A Friesian-cow,-owned by Mr. L. Ji Evans, of Tittensor, Staffordshire, has set up a.new.world record with a milk yield of 1,827 gallons. According to the Agricultural Department there is still a good demand for the product of the cow, and high-class .dairy goods are scai.-coj By judicious, systematic selection it is possible to build up a herd that will ultimately consist of high-grade and profitable producers. The chief factor is the bull, which should be purebred, and supported by high-grade milk and butter-fat producing records so far as bis dam and grand-dam are concerned. Judicious selection applies not only to the bull but also to the cows. The bull contributes only his particular share towards the building-up of a herd, and the farmer should do the rest, wherein feeding takes first place. Quantity, in this connection, is not the main consideration, because there are, for example, foodstuffs that are filling, such as grass, hay and maize stalks, while there are others that, are nourishing, such as concentrates, maize, oats, bran; etc. So far as housing is concerned, it. Is surprising how many cows are still allowed to shift for themselves, in the winter, instead of being housed at night in a shed or such-like. Old bags are cheap, and a few sewn together make an excellent blanket for thq cow at night. The cows should not only be milked regularly, but they should also, on each occasion, be milked thoroughly dry. A good milker is most valuable as the inefficient milker can easily spoil the cow’s udders by neglecting them dry.

FLAVOURS IN BUTTER IMPORTANCE OF WASHING Some butter-makers, rightly or wrongly, consider it unnecessary to wash the butter in its granular form when being taken out of the churn. Failure to wash the butter thoroughly is doubtless the chief cause of the , butter in too many cases turning rancid when kept any length of time, says the London paper, “Farm, Field and Fireside.” It is quite true that where the cream is in first-class condition, and free from any objectionable odours, of taint, a very fine quality of butter can be made without, washing the butter. Such butter will have a high aroma and a flue palate flavour, while the butter is quite fresh. But it usually deteriorates when kept any length of time. Washing is necessary to secure good keeping qualities in the butter. While the greatest, care may he taken with the milk and the cream so as to keep them free from objectionable flavours, it. is very dillicult to prevent the cream, and hence the butter, acquiring some sort of taint, even where a separator is in use, tor the milk may in some slight degree be affected in process of milking or in course of its transference from milking pail to separator. Again, the feeding of cows in always liable in some small measure to affect the* flavour of the milk and butter. This is particularly evident in the autumn when cows begin to feed on turnips. Unless the buttermilk is washed out of the huttci it is likely to be of poor quality, because any such unwashed butter contains a high percentage of casein or curd. Now curd or cheese in the butter is certain to reduce its keeping qualities; especially is this so in the case of cream that, has become overripe, or cream collected from milk that' has stood in pans till it has become more or less sour.

GLAXO FACTORY TO CLOSE LITTLE DEMAND FOR POWDER It; is understood that the Glaxo Manufacturing Company's big Matangi factory is to close dpvvn for the season on Tuesday, March 10, which is two months earlier than last year. The company’s decision will render idle much earlier than usual practically the whole of the manufacturing staff, numbering more than 30 hands. Only a small maintenance staff will be kept on. . .. Although the company s supply ot milk has been well ahead of previous seasons, it has been necessary to stop making powder, as the company’s quota for export for the season has already been manufactured. The earlier cessation in manufacture of powder will not affect the suppliers financially. They have been better off In the matter of pay-out than most dairy suppliers in the Dominion,, for the reason that milk supplied from now on will he skimmed and the cream forwarded to the New Zealand •Daii> Company for butter-making. The -earlier cessation of manufacture is a serious thing for the staff, who must now seek other employment or remain among the ranks of the unemployed until September 1, 1931. Several of the old employees who are going off have been employed all the year round at the factory for the past iT2 years, - The company’s decision is influenced by the supplies on the market and the poorer demand-.

PERIOD OF LOW PRICES BENEFICIAL TO BUTTER That the period of low prices for butter has been very beneficial in establishing' this commodity throughout the; United Kingdom is home out by a deport from the Old -Country. “As a matter of fact,” states the report, “it was not anybody at all who put the market down, but the buyers as a whole, and they did not want the market to go down, because they were all losing money on their stocks, and it, was on account of this that the market received such little support that only a continual lowering of price would induce buyers to maintain any interest in butter whatever. This headlong fall process resulted in considerable cutting on the retail counter, which has stimulated the demand to a point hitherto unknown in the butter trade of this country. A goodwill for New Zealand butter has thus been established, and people who have forsaken margarine in favour ol butter will now likely continue using butter, even at some advance in the retail price. It has been a question of buying a sufficient amount 01. butter trade to move off the increasing supplies. “Candidly, 1 do not believe that the outlook to-day would he so good if it had not been for the enormous amount of interest which was created in butter by the drop. The article was used as a kind of advertising counter, and it became the popular thing for retailers to push butter and compete for the business. All this kind of thing naturally resulted in far more publicity being given to butter than ordinarily. “I wrote you a short time ago on the question of relative marketing of Danish and New Zealand butter and the effect on prices. 1 think you will find as the time goes on that the margin between the two varieties will gradually lessen. For one thing there will be less tendency on the part of all concerned to. hold back New Zealand butter from sale and cold store it for long periods. The consequent improvement in quality of butter as bought by the public is in itself the mest advertisement which New Zeaand can have, and from this cause ■lone 1 believe a considerable price mprovement will he witnessed. The Now Zealand butter importers here are co-operating with the New Zealand Dairy Produce Board in a

large Press campaign during (he next two or three months, and all importers are contributing their quota ol the expense, and, moreover, are giving personal assistance in regard to ideas of pushing the butter among the trade. The collapse in the marker, will not have been wasted, seeing the way it has spurred the whole trade here to get together and strive to the uttermost to increase the: popularity of New Zealand butter, for the benefit not only of the New Zealand dairymen but of themselves as well. “To sum up, much good has be.cn dohe by tbe drop, and further good will result, provided, of course, that speculators do not got into the maiket and hoist prices up by their operations. Extremely high prices, even for a short period, may have just as deleterious effect on the market as extremely low prices.”

GERMAN DAIRY CAT I LE FRIE3IANS PREDOMINATE The total cattle population of Germany is 17,1100,000, of which about 10,000,000 are •“lowlands cattle,” ami 80 per cent, ol these lowland cattle are black-and-white cattle ol HolsteinFriesian race, or have llolstein-Fries-iau blood. Germany imports yearly about £20,000,000 worth of butter ami £0,000,000 worth of cheese. The most important breeding district is along the coasts of the North and the Baltic Seas. From the North German “marsh” districts the H'd-stein-Friesian advanced gradually into the interior of the country, so that today the entire North German plain is occupied by them. In Germany the moduim-sized hums keep the greatest number of cows per unit of cultivated area. On the average farm the herd of cows is the most valuable item and occupies such a place in the farm income that the weekly milk revenue pays for the farm labour. The co-operative dairy plants have been steadily developed since about 1875. There the greater part of the farmers deliver their milk. Mostly it is bought according to tat content, sometimes according to purity and by measured volume. The skim and butter milk are gi.'on bad: and are used for hog feeding. East Prussia was the first to work out butter standards in Germany. In the district around Tilsit and Allgau the skim milk generally is used for cooperative cheese manufacturing, 'the number of small larms that munutac-. tare butter themselves and sell this product, and the number of independent. buyers purchasing milk from the farmers steadily decreases. Many well-managed farms situated at a small distance from the market produce baby milk. For such farms veterinary supervision, examination of tlie cows, short stands, hygienic conditions, special care and feeding, are by law. But also for (he usual market milk several laws exist concerning minimum fat content, adulteration, containers, health of cows, equipment and procedure fqi' obtain-

ing ami keeping milk pure. Milk in Germany is permitted to bo sold only in special stoves, complying with special requirements. The ideal conformal ion in HolsteinFriesian breeds is as follows: —Deep and firm-.animals with strong bodies and healthy and vigorous, broad bodies with a barrel-shaped spread of ribs, well muscled flanks, roomy wellclosed udder, great milk and fat production in connection with good feeding ability. In breeding onv cattle special emphasis is laid upon the constitution under the following viewpoint. _ Tin' first- requirement of breeding animals is health, which depends upon the constitution. By constitution is meant a general resistance to harmful influences of all kinds. This resistance is based on special properties of (be tissue and is fixed by heredity, Over-refinement must be avoided and a strong healthy raising during (be youth on the pasture must bo provided if one purpose is to lie emphasised beyond all others. For registration in the Herd Books (he cattle having registered parents must pass a so-called “Kornngs examination. In addition to it from (be Insterburg Herd Book Association, Fast Prussia, a minimum record of performance is required for registration of cows; 2201 b. of fat or more must have been produced in d(h> days, and at least 121 b. of fat for each- 220 lb. starch, value. All bulls used tor public service must be from registered parents, and must have passed the ('.overnment “Kornngs’ examination. Bulls not passing the ‘'Kornngs” examination are castrated. In case of cows with incomplete pedigrees we may register them in a so-called “Hilfstammbuch” (pre-register pedigree book I if they pass the “Korungs” examination and fulfill the requirements of minimum performance. Tin- minimum requirements for the black-and-white Germany lowland cattle (Holstein-Friesians) for vogis(ration in the Advanced Dairy Registry 7 are as follows: For 805-day 7 period: Freshening at loss (ban three years. 5501 b; freshening at less than four years, 0051 b; freshening at more (ban four years, (tooth. For 805-day testing periods, 95 per cent, of the required performance of the 805-day period. Mo fewer than 1,1.78 animals have boon entered in the Advanced Dairy Registry, 90S of these being cows. Bulls can he registered if four or more of (heir daughters are registered. In Fast Prussia the 228 cows in the Advanced Dairy Registry have an average production of 19,05511) milk and 782.011). fat. with an average tost of 8 78. per cent. Four of these cows exceeded a fat production cf 000 lb. fat. Some of the highest producing cows are Holst ein-Friesia ns: lb. milk. lb. fat.

Krlo r.th .. .. 24.208 1.225.-1 Mlse 23,780 1,129.0 Dahlie .. 25,720 1,122.0 Tlialia . s . i m 28,851 1,014.2