ON THE LAND

Taranaki Daily News, 19 August 1933, Page 24 (Supplement)

ON THE LAND

QUALITY OF PRODUCE

HANDLING OF NIGHT MILK.

PROBLEMS OF CHEESE-MAKING.

(By

“Tainui.”)

Taranaki dairy farmers generally are quite prepared to do their share, and a very important part, too, in endeavouring to produce butter and cheese of a very high quality by delivering to the factory only the finest of milk. They are out to do everything possible to eliminate the known causes of lower grade milk by exercising all care in the handling ,of the milk after it has been taken from the cow, that is by paying more careful attention to cleanliness and also to the cooling of the milk. There are, however, occasions when despite the utmost precautions taken by the farmer, the milk does not come up to the requisite standard when it reaches the factory, and the experts and scientists 'have difficulty in tracing the cause. It is recognised that owing to the climatic conditions it is more .difficult to keep the night milk in good condition on the farm than it is the morning milk. So keen is the desire to ensure that the milk is delivered to the factory in the best condition that it has been suggested that suppliers should deliver the night’s milk to the factory in the evening. It has been stated that it might be possible even to have an extra staff working at the factory so that .the night’s milk could be converted into cheese dur-

ing the night, whilst the day staff would j only have to deal with the morning milk. Though there are perhaps difficulties in the way, they should not 'be insurmountable, and the result of such an experiment; if it were to be tried in . Taranaki, would be watched with interest. At one dairy factory annual meeting it was suggested that it would be a considerable advantage if the night’s milk could be taken, the same evening to the factory where it could be held until the morning under the best of conditions and at a uniform temperature. Admittedly the majority of farmers are working at present at high pressure, and have very little time available to make the extra trip, ' whilst there would also be the additional cost of the second trip. Motor transport, however, to a very large extent solves the question of time, which could further be eased by organisation and co-operation so as to provide that one supplier could take his own and his neighbour’s milk in the morning, whilst in the evening the neighbour could take the two lots of milk. Or perhaps the solution would be for the factory to run a lorry to pick up the night’s, milk. In any case any little ' . extra expense would be more than compensated for as the supplier would not . have the worry of looking after his night’s milk, and moreover the better quality of cheese that the factory manager should be able to turn out as a result should mean extra demand with resultant extra price. In some districts where glaxo or dried

milk is manufactured the milk has to be taken to the factory ever;- morning and evening, and no difficulty is experienced. Of course, in Taranaki there ■would be prejudices to break down, as it is very hard to bring into operation some scheme that is a distinct departure from what has been the vogue ever since the industry was first established on sound commercial lines. Still there

have been drastic changes that took some time to introduce but are now accepted as part of the every day system, and few would dream of reverting to the old order of things. Among them may be mentioned the elimination of the skimming stations, which were so common in Taranaki in years gone, by, together with the supplier’s horse and trap or waggon that'carted his milk to be separated there and'laboriously carted the skim milk home again. These have been replaced by the home separator and the motor waggon that picks the cream up at the farm gate. There is also the replacement of. hand , milking by machines; etc. Another argument in favour of manufacturing the moiming milk and evening milk into cheese by day and night staffs respectively is that in growing districts it i would be possible to cope with the increasing . supply without having •to enlarge the present factories or add much extra plant until output had practically doubled. The . whole position would have to be ■ carefully gone into from eVery viewpoint, so as to make certain that it was sound and would give better results in quality without entailing any m'ore expense or at most, little more expense than under the present system of taking the milk to the factory once each day. It is evident that the. quality of cheese is improving, that directors are now , placing yield in the background, and that all connected with the industry from the supplier to the factory manager and the directors will not be satisfied until the milk grades 100 per cent, first and the cheese 100 per cent, finest GREEN MANURING. CONSOLIDATING LIGHT SOILS. Greep manuring has proved a valuable ' adjunct to scientific farming in many parts of the world and could be applied to many areas in Taranaki with marked success. The first and foremost value of green manuring is the adding of humus to soils deficient in vegetable matter, but it can be used for other purposes as •well, as for instance, the adding of nitrogen to the soil by the use of leguminous plants. The purpose of this article is not to treat green manuring in all its branches, but rather to touch lightly on that matter for the purpose of stimulating interest that will be helped along with further information later. The farmer who has a fair amount of light land that dries out all too quickly should start to consider ways and means now because the time will soon arrive when something will have to be done if another year is not to be lost. The process of green manuring is considered by some farmers io be a loss in that it holds up a certain area while the green manure is being grown, but that is a fallacy in more ways than one, and while those ways will be discussed later, it can be said now that a process which can increase the annual crop cannot be regarded as a loss no matter what may appear on the face of things.

Every farmer knows the value of lupins where sand drifts have to be checked, but perhaps it is not generally known that the humus added to the soil by the falling leaves of the lupin do as much towards checking drifting sand as do ths shrubs themselves. That being so it need scarcely be said that the ploughing in of lupins will go a long way towards consolidating sandy soils. In addition, the lupins will put sufficient nitrogen into the soil to increase some more useful crop to a very considerable extent.

MILK FOR CHEESE-MAKING

VEXED QUESTION OF PAYMENT.

DEVISING A SOLUTION.

(By

“Tainui.”)

For years past, indeed practically ever since the making of cheese sprang into such prominence, there has been considerable controversy over the method of payment for the milk received. There was considerable opposition to the introduction of the system of payment for the butter-fat content as disclosed by the Babcock tester, the previous system being to pay for the milk itself. It has, however, long been recognised that as far as the manufacture of butter is concerned payment on the basis of the butter-fat in the milk is a fair 'basis, as the amount of butter manufactured from the milk depends definitely on the amount of butter-fat contained in the milk. In regard to the manufacture of cheese another constituent in the milk, casein, plays probably the most important part, as under ordinary circumstances all the casein is incorporated in the cheese whilst in the case of the higher butterfat milks some of it cannot be. It is felt ■by many that as the value of the milk for butter-making is the basis of payment for the milk on cream sent to a butter factory, the same principle should ■be applied to the milk forwarded for the manufacture of cheese, namely that it should be paid for on the basis of its value for cheese production. In the manufacture of butter the supplier not only gets paid for the butter-fat content of his milk, but- in some cases provision is also made whereby the casein is extracted from the skim milk and the supplier gets paid for that in addition. In cheese factories also provision is made,for separating from the whey the butter-fat that is not incorporated into the cheese, and the proceeds are distributed among the suppliers. The casein content, however, is not taken into account as far as the individual supplier of the milk is concerned. Certainly the more casein the greater the quantity of cheese made, and the greater the pool to distribute among suppliers, but. that pool, is distributed not on the basis of the casein content but on the basis of the butter-fat content. It is held by many that the basis ,of payment should be altered te provide that the milk should be paid for in its cheese producing value. It is held that under the present system of payment for butter-fat the suppliers of milk with a high butter-fat content were obtaining an unfair advantage over the suppliers of milk with a low butter-fat content in the matter of pay-out, that is quite apart from the question as to whether high/ or low testing milk makes the better cheese, about which there has also been considerable controversy. Some attempts have been made to devise a scheme whereby the casein content should be recognised. Some years back the Tariki Dairy Company in Conjunction with the Dairy Division adopted a system of testing for both butter-fat and casein and paying out on the combined tests. It was found, however, that the difference was so slight that the trouble and expense of the double test was not warranted, so after about three years it was decided to revert to the system of paying on butter-fat only. That must be about 15 years ago. Since then, as butter-fat is being paid for, the tendency has 'been to go in for higher testing butter-fat cows, with the result that in practically every district the average butter-fat test has shown a considerable advance, and it would probably be found that if the Tariki tests were to 'be put into operation to-day the difference in the pay-outs might be a little greater. It is conceded that it is the commonsense and business-like method to pay suppliers for their milk according to the produce that it is to be manufactured into. That has proved easy in the case of butter, but in the case of cheese it is proving more difficult to evolve a satisfactory system. It was hoped that the 'experiment conducted by the Rahotu Co-op. Dairy Company in conjunction with Mr. P. O. Veale, of the Hawera laboratory, would have given a basis to work, and consequently that experiment was being watch with a great deal of interest, not only in Taranaki but also beyond. The milk was tested for both casein and butter-fat, and the payment was to be based on the casein ratio according to a table prepared by Mr. P. O. Veale. That table proved unsatisfactory, but the experiment is to be continued with another table evolved by Mr. Veale, which it is considered will provide a simpler method of arriving at the true cheese value of the milk.

The' experiment carried out by the Rahotu Company so far has definitely shown that while the casein content varied in the milk just as butter-fat content varied, it did not always vary in the same proportion. At one time there would ■be more casein in proportion to butterfat and at another time less. The Rahotu Dairy Company is certainly to be commended for the lead that it has given in endeavouring to reach finality in what has proved a very difficult subject, and the results of their experiment this season will also 'be awaited' with keen interest. The suggestion made by Mr. Geo. Gibson at the annual meeting of the Rahotu Dairy Company that Massey College should make an investigation into the question with a view to proving whether or not the Rahotu Company is working on the right lines in solving the problem is worthy of every support, as the sooner the payment for milk for cheese-making is placed on such a basis that no factory supplier will be able to think, rightly or wrongly, that some other supplier is getting an undue advantage over him, the better it will be for the- industry as a whole. AGRICULTURAL CLUBS. REMARKABLE SUCCESS ACHIEVED. In the crop growing section of agricultural work for the past season, outstanding results have been gained by the Massed family of club members belonging to the Otautau School district club, Southland. Some remarkably good crops were grown, members securing the highest yields in their respective section of club work. v Richard Massed grew a crop of King Edward potatoes yielding 42 tons 3cwt. per acre; a similar crop grown by Robert Massed yielded 32 tons per acre; Eileen Massed grew a crop of green stem choumoellier yielding 63 tons per acre, and Walter Massed ' grew a crop of yellow globe mangolds yielding 105 tons per acre. In addition to successful crop growing Eileen and Robert gained premier places in the pig feeding competition, and Richard and Walter secured creditable awards in the calf rearing competition. The family also annexed many premier awards with their live stock, produce and record charts at A. and P. summer and winter shows.