MILK SUPPLY

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIV, Issue 20983, 11 March 1938, Page 8

MILK SUPPLY

PRODUCTION COSTS SURVEY TO BE MADE The decision of the Government to carry out a survey of the production of liquid milk for consumption in homes and schools was announced to-day by the Minister of Agriculture, the Hon. W. Lee Martin, who stated that the production of milk for these purposes called for a specialised type of dairying which was of greater national importance than many realised. “This survey will be made by the Department of Agriculture and will be under the direction of Mr R. P. Connell, Land Utilisation Officer,” said the Minister. “It will be conducted on similar lines to the two surveys carried out in recent years in regard to the production of butter-fat for manufacture into dairy produce and to surveys of other phases of farming, such as wheat growing and flax growing. The work is being designed to cover thoroughly the economics of milk production, and the objective is not only to give accurate information on the present cost of production, but also to indicate the major factors responsible for inter-farm variations in the cost of production and thereby possibly to point the way to betterment of the milk-producing industry. It is to be expected that comparison of the results and returns from various systems of farm-management and farm practice will reveal the relative efficiency of these under specific conditions and provide guidance as to the avenues which should be followed to attain lower average costs of production. “Specific matters which specially call for attention relate to systems of feeding and provision of feed, distribution of calving dates, relative incidence and importance of diseases and disorders, types of soils, and herd and pasture maintenance. In the past such a survey has been asked for by the representatives of milk producers in the Wellington Province and, for a start at least, the survey will cover the Wel-lington-West Coast district from about Palmerston North to Paekakariki. The fullest collaboration of the farmers concerned with the officers carrying out the survey is necessary to obtain a true picture of the position and, judging from the experience in respect of similar surveys dealing with other phases of rural production, such collaboration will characterise the forthcoming survey.”