THE CHEESE INDUSTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 April 1931, Page 4

THE CHEESE INDUSTRY.

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —The reply of the Hon. A. J. Murdoch to the New Zealand Friesian Association’s letter indi rites but one clear point; that is that he or the Dairy Division has no intention of taking the helm and steering the cheese industry away from the rocks. The fact of there I being any necessity for the costly. experiments with standardised And socalled Cheddar cheese I- thin,; everyone admits was due to there being too. much fat in the standard of milk available for cheese-making, and while At is, no doubt, very interesting for Mr. Murdoch and his scientists to find out thm exact chemical reasons for this, it does not in the least alter the fact or save the industry from ruination. In the meantime the butter-fat system of pay-out makes it compulsory for farmers to breed Jersey , cattle, no ■ matter -What their convictions may be, and there are thousands and thousands of heifers coming to milk in the spring, .which I can safely say. will average about a 5. per cent, test, and that they arel mostly takimr the places of cows testing 10 to 15 points below that. There. are also a crop of weaners, whose lest will prob-' ably average two points higher, and in a few months’ time farmers will be selecting heifer calves with still higher, tests, afi. to replace cows that are known to be far more -profitable for cheesemaking. We are even now buying bulls with one object—still more concentrated fat—whose progeny will be available in 1934. By that time our September test will hot be far short of our April test of a few years ago. I don’t think there is anyone connected with the cheese industry who is not convinced that the milk contains too much fat now and who would not gladly breed cattle with a lower percentage, only they know that.it would be useless to do so unless everyone 1 did the same, 'for" even were half the cheese gpod and the other half bad it wouldall be'New Zealand cheese, and’the bad Would spoil the reputation and price of the good. As the Dairy Division has no 'immediate intention of saving the situation we will have to look to the Control Board, and I think it. only reasonable that our three Taranaki members should give us their views, if they have any; as : under the* present'system of payout farmers have absolutely no alternative but to breed Jersey cattle, which means an ever increasingly high test and less, and less milk; - If. ever a -valuable industry, was drifting on the rocks for the want of a man-at the helm it is dur cheese business, as town and country, people know to their sorrow, Lam, etc., ■ , . .. -J.F. ! Opunake,'April 27, 1931.