THE DAIRYING INDUSTRY

Taranaki Daily News, 8 August 1930, Page 4

THE DAIRYING INDUSTRY

MEETING OF MOKAU COMPANY SATISFACTORY SEASON REPORTED INCREASING SUPPLY NOTED. The. Mokau Co-operative Dairy Company held its tenth annual meeting on Tuesday, when Air. W. D. Black presided over about 35 shareholders. The report said the weather wae excellent for dairying during the season, and this fact, coupled with a substantial additional supply from the Awakino district, had made an increase in the ■ butter-fat supplied to the company of 136,8281 b. {over 100 per cent.). ' The figures • relating to production were: Quantity of cream received; 882,3561 b;; quantity of butter-fat received, 265,9001 b.; average test of cream, 38 96 per cent,; .quantity of butter made, 326,8801 b.; over-run, 22-93 per cent.; lb. cream, to. lb. butter, 2.081 b.; ccst of I manufacture at per lb. butter-fat, 1.47 d; ! ; : management, .67<1; charges to f.0.b., J .19d; depreciation, .174 —total cost 2.50 d. '; ■ During the year £15,839 3s had been paid to "suppliers, being equal to 14.30 d per lb. butter-fat. The sum of £l9O had been written off for depreciation, and this left a small debit balance to profit and loss account of £42 9s 9d, which .would be liquidated when all the results of ■shipments on the water were to hand and stocks ‘in cool store were shipped and marketed. The results of all shipments up to and Includino- the s.s. Port Brisbane, covering the °Mokau make up to February 9, 1930, had been taken into account in the balance-sheet. At present 1414 boxes were on ‘the water and 356 were in cool store awaiting shipment. The sum of : Is Id per lb. had been drawn against ’ 89,boxes, Is against 262 boxes and lid -• • against 1043 boxes, and as the market ■-; ' ’ was now showing a firmer tendency, / these shipments should show a considered . able surplus when marketed. . Heading the debit side of the manu- ■ '• faeturing° account, eream was valued at £15,839° 3s, wages and salaries £430 106 Gd, and working expenses £1196 14s Bd. The balance carried to profit and loss account was . £1123 12s lOd, and the total was £18,590 10s. On the credit side butter gales and stock on hand realised £18,582 10s. and butter-milk sales £B. 100 PER CENT.. INCREASE. The adoption of the report and bal-ance-sheet was moved by the chairman. He congratulated shareholders on the • 100 per cent, increase in supply for the year? Weather conditions during the past year were undoubtedly very good for dairying, but, of course, they had to thank the suppliers from the Awakino district for the major portion of the increase. This, he was pleased te report, with the aid of good management in the factory by the manager had reduced the total cost of manufacture from 3.35 d to 2Ad. He wae sure the supply of cream was going to show a substantial increase every year and they would receive the benefit of the consequent decrease in manufacturing costs as their output grew. For the previous nine years the company had been seriously handicapped by want of supply, by mud roads and heavy transportation charges, but the shareholders never lost heart, and it was a great pleasure for him to know that they had overcome all these difficulties. He could see no reason why they would not soon be in a position to compare very favourably with other factories situated closer to a shipping port. In the early part of the season the butter market had been in a buoyant state, and he thought everyone looked forward to a year of good prices. They had no suspicion whatever of the serious financial depression that had been rapidly approaching and was to affect the world. Since the formation of the company ten years ago it had always followed a strict consignment policy and had never made an f.o.b. sale prior to i last geason. Early in October last, however, when offers were hovering around ; V Is 5Jd to Is s£d, the directors decided ' to make their first sale, covering five i shipments and amounting to 734 boxes, the price being Is for finest and Is 53d for first grade. It was lucky they made this sale, as within a week the market broke and rapidly became demoralised. The sale covered shipments by the Tainui, Karamea, Port Melbourne, Rarenga, and Tamaroa, and showed an average gain of 17s 7d per cwt., as against consignments by the same steamers, the gain in cash amounting to £3lO on the 734 boxes. It was hot expected then that butter would decline in price from 180 s per cwt. to 122 s per cwt. during the space of a few weeks, and when the fall did take place it had been hoped the recover? would be just as rapid. This woe not so, and numbers of the company’s consignments netted very low prices. BUTTER MARKET FIRMING. It was pleasing to note that the '• butter market was now firming. It had already shown a substantial rise during the past few weeks and there seemed to be some prospect bf it becoming stabilised for some time ahead at J4os to 150 s per cwt. All the shipments afloat at tl t time of balancing had been taken into stock at a very conservative price and consequently their latter end shipments were expected to show a substantial surplus when marketed. Mr. Black quoted results of shipments arrived in London since the closing of the company’s year to show that there should be a very substantial surplus.’ He had every confidence in sayjnc that when everything was marketed’the small debit balance showing in the profit and loss account for the year would be converted to a substantial credit balance in profit and loss appropriation account, and they would be in a position to make an additional payment to suppliers. Their average payment to date was - ]4.30d per lb. butter-fat, which compared very favourably with other small factories situated as they were. In order to meet with the increase In supply a very considerable sum had had to be spent in new plant of larger capacity and on the re-arrangement of the old plant. A large portion of this ' had been written into' repairs and renewals and the remainder capitalised. i: . : The factory and plant should now be' ' suitable for some time and then, if the output still continued to grow, an 7a3 expected, the company would have to face a much larger expenditure in making extensive alterations tp the building.) The possibilities of the district in re-. fa rd to dairying were, of course, very ig, and he ventured to say that they

were not nearly in sight of the peak of their production. In the manufacturing account, wages • id working expenses naturally showed, a substantial increase, seeing that they had doubled their output, but in spite of this lhe fuel account had increased only by £9, said Mr- Black. This reflected very creditably on the work of t i manager, and it was most satisfactory to note that he had been able to put through such a large increased quantity on such a small additional cost in fuel. In the profit and Iws account, there was an increase of £3OO in repairs and renewals, due to the alteration and addition to plant in order to cope with the increased supply, and he did not anticipate such a large outlay in that direction for some time to come. Export charges and dairy control levy were doubled through the supply being doubled. The report and balance-sheet were adopted without discussion. The. retiring directors, Messrs. W. D. Blaek and J. N. Bryant, were re-elected unopposed. Mr. C- H- Wynyard was reappointed auditor. At a subsequent meeting of directors Mr. L. R. Jones was elected chairman. Mr. Black, who had been chairman since the inception of the .ponipanjz ten years ago, was proposed. 1 blit ‘expressed a wish to be relieved of the responsibility.