THE DAIRYING INDUSTRY

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 55, Issue 3989, 10 December 1937, Page 5

THE DAIRYING INDUSTRY

ITS EVOLUTION ROUND OTOROHANGA.

THEN AND NOW. (By “Anchorite.”) The first creamery established in tlie King Country was erected at Kio Kio in September of 1903, 34 years ago, by Mr Wesley Spragg, of the. N.Z. Dairy Association. The manager appointed was Mr H. J. Osmond, who in the first year separated daily the cream from 250 cows. The cream was then forwarded to Hamilton, where it was manufactured into butter. It was afterwards sent to the Ngaruawahia factory. . _

Among the first suppliers to the new venture were Messrs Gardiner, O'Donnell, J. Budge, Wallace Bros., Foster, J. W. Ellis, John Cumpstone, Armstrong, R. Holden, H. W. Clarke, Ogle Bros., F. Morloy, W. Eveleigh and Ramsay. Mr Osmond ran the plant for four years, when with Mr Gane, of Cambridge, he selected a site for the erection of a similar creamery in Mair Street, Otorohanga. near the Hcnikiwi bridge, over the Waipa. The building was duly erected in 1909 in Mair Street, and managed by Mr Osmond for a number of years, the separated cream being sent to Ngaruawahia.

With the advent of home separation the plant was closed down, and shortly afterwards the N.Z. Co-operative Dairy Association erected a large butter manufacturing plant at the northern end of the town. This, in turn,, lias been succeeded by the huge modern plant operating to-day, at the southern end of Otorohanga. Mr Osmond thus holds the unique position of running tlie first plants at Kio Kio and Otorohanga, and is still a resident of the town. HOME SEPARATION. The advent of home separation, first advocated by the late Colonel Allan Bell, has proved a boon to dairy herdsmen throughout this territory. In the old days it was a herculean task to transport the milk to the creamery, from the outback farms, and to cart the skim milk home to the calves or pigs. It must be remembered that the roads then were clay tracks, and almost impassable during the three months of the winter period. Even during early spring and late autumn, many of the dairy farmers conveyed their milk to the creamery on sledges, konakis or pack horses. If it were not for home separation being in vogue to-day, it is quite certain that even the present. excellent roads that radiate in seven directions fanwise from Otorohanga would not stand up to the strain of the haulage of the milk from the countless thousands of cows over them twice daily. It is a far cry from the days of 34 years ago, when the milk of 250 cows was treated at the Kio Kio creamery. There are now individual farms in the Northern King Country that milk upwards of twice this number of cows, night and morning. In the process of evolution, the puny efforts of the early dairymen would now appear to fade into insignificance.