CURRENT FARM TOPICS

Taranaki Daily News, 27 May 1933, Page 12 (Supplement)

CURRENT FARM TOPICS

THE DAIRYING INDUSTRY. A GREAT OPPORTUNITY. „ (Specially Written for the News by C. Cuming.) Never was there such an opportunity to place the dairying industry on an improved and more permanently profitable basis. Professor Riddet and Dr. Marsden, in their valuable joint bulletin on “Problems of the Dairy Industry,” suggest many reforms, mainly to be left to the good sense of the industry. In regard to the vital matter of improved quality of the raw material they say, “We should ruthlessly eliminate raw milk and cream supplies of low quality rather than spread the reduction indiscriminately.” It is well to have this statement, but how is the poor quality milk—-the greatest menace to the industry—to be eliminated ? If left to the industry it will never be done. What is wanted is drastic state action. State Officers Must Grade Supplies. High quality milk and cream will never be secured with the present competition between factories, and while an employee of the particular company is responsible for any grading of the raw material that takes place. The grading must be done by an independent Government official. Just as meat inspection is done by government officers but the cost of the service paid for by the meat export .companies so state experts must do the grading of the cream and milk and the dairy companies pay the salaries of the experts. Stricter Grading Necessary. Not only is it essential to have the grading done by independent men, but the standard must-be raised. At the present time suppliers who are prepared to take special care in the handling of their raw material, by cooling it properly on the farm, for instance, have become absolutely discouraged. I have a case in mind where a man who took the greatest- care with his cream, keeping the night ..cream separate from the morning cream , and cooling the cream well, now mixes hjs cream and does not cool it. But he. still gets superfine grade ! Men who are prepared to produce highgrade raw material, without which it is impossible to®manufacture superfine butter and cheese, must be encouraged, and the men who deliver indifferent and poor quality milk or cream must be forced into line.

Quality Must Be Paid For. Grading to a higher standard is not alone sufficient It must be accompanied with a higher premium for the choicer article. . Sheds and milking machines will be maintained as they should be only when there is some reward for the extra work and care, and especially when the superior product is valued more than the product of those who work under such conditions that their product cannot be suitable for the making of high grade butter and cheese. Inferior Produce,

Keen grading by independent officials would at once definitely raise the standard of the bulk of our produce. But in these days of fierce market competition a further step which would enormously strengthen our position on the Home markets would be allowing the export of only butter and cheese of the choicer grades, all butter and cheese of secondary qualities being barred from _ shipment. This would be a further incentive to suppliers of poor quality raw material to rapidly fall into line. There is little or nothing in the argument, except the need for installing a proper water supply, that improved equipment would have to be installed to obtain high quality milk or cream. The chief requirement is cleanliness, and even with a moderate supply of water cleanliness can be ensured where there is the necessary will and energy. In any case a man who will make no serious attempt to deliver clean and cold milk or cream should not be allowed to contaminate the whole of the factory supply and. injure the reputation of the Dominion’s produce. s - Many Reforms Necessary.. We are not unmindful of the fact that absolute cleanliness on the farm is not everything; that mammitis milk, for instance, may cause serious trouble in the cheese-making process. For this reason grading by the bacterial count is to be preferred. Then cheesemaking is an art which demand of . the maker of it something more than rule-of-thumb methods. Again, cheese factory. managers should be encouraged by their directorates to aim ht quality rather than’ at yield. Finally in the all-important matter of cleanliness many factories could provide a much better example to their suppliers than they do; and cleanliness is the foundation stone of quality. PROBLEMS OF THE HERD THE ONLY WAY. I recently thoroughly enjoyed an . experience. I was-accompanying a friend .to purchase; a bull in a way that all bulls should be purchased. The sire he was negotiating for had splendid butterfat backing.. The dam was a great producing heifer (she had given 4621 b. as a two-year-old. and has given 3851 b. in 190 days as. a three-year-old). Her mother has fine production figures to her credit and the sire was from a cow with a long succession of records. When we reached the farm of the breeder the young bull, his dam and her. mother, anc. the sire and his mother, were all at hand for inspection. They,-.were all as satisfactory from constitution and conformation viewpoints, as they were from a producing viewpoint, and, to cap it all, the young sire our friend was after was absolutely Outstanding, of great constitution and undoubted masculinity. What a way to buy a bull ITo have figures proving the producing blood .behind ;him, to inspect together his immediate ancestors, and. to see in. the animal himself outstanding evidences of prepotency, the capacity (so far as appearances go) of being able to pass on the great blood he carried. A further point, the bull was tattooed before he was taken from his dam, a rule with all calves of the up-to-date and careful breeder. How many men purchase a bull in this absolutely safe way ? And yet the business of buying a sire means success or failure in dairy farming. And the Price. Who can put a value on a sire such as the one described ? The man who purchased it had tried foiO years to get the type- of bull he wanted, but had failed. He paid a big price for this one, realising what the right type of bull would mean to him. And he cannot afford a motor-car 1 But the policy he is pursuing should enable him in the near future to have a car as well as the best bull procurable. A Good Friend. The other day a keen young dairy farmer consulted a friend in regard to the purchase of several pedigree heifers. The friend—he was a friend—succeeded in persuading him not to purchase heifers, but to put. all the money he intended spending on the heifers, and then double it if necessary, into the best bull he could buy, but to see the dam of the bull before he purchased. That young farmer is now searching the country for .the type of sire he should have, being prepared, ev:n if it should strain his resources' 7 -to The utmost, to buy the best-backed and best-constitutioned bull he can get