DAIRYING ELSEWHERE

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1687, 17 November 1925, Page 6

DAIRYING ELSEWHERE

Mt G, DAHL’S INVESTIGATION.

When one carefully inquires from large firms of standing who have for many years handled New Zealand produce, especially butter, we learn a good deal which I fear may never be known' by the producer, writes Mr Dahl. They tell us that we must improve our quality and maintain it; that we must achieve uniform quality, and be in a position to deliver first quality butter all the year round. Merchants will te.l you that if they were in a position to guarantee fresh New Zealand butter all the year round they would have a much better chance of getting higher prices. Of course it would mean milking all the year round, but all other countries are doing the same under much more unfavourable conditions. I know there •would be a great deal of opposition to this, yet one has to look ahead, because our competitors are after us, and in this, as in other industries, we mujst awaken to the fact that the fittest will survive. Why should we allow our competitors to beat us? As far as dairy produce is concerned, we ought to be ahead or all others, and make the best use of the excellent chances we have, in any case, for the next few years. You will be surprised to hear that amongst buttelr merchants in London there is a great leaning towards New South Wales butter, which is steadily improving and getting more and more of a uniform quality, and although We see it, as a rule, ranging a shilling or two under the New Zealand butter, yet it is very highly spoken of. Then therei is the Danish butter, which is of course, of a high quality, and let me .say here itlhat it will be difficult to interfere very much with these supplies. Many people will tell you that they know New Zealand butter is very good, but they have for many years been accustomed to the flavour of Danish butter; even if it ccsts a little more they prefer to have it. This you hear over and over again, and I wish to point out that butter supplies from Denmark will, within the next five or six years, increase at least 10 per cent, on account of some land which hitherto has ■been held in large estates being cut up, Which all helps to advance competition. Then the fact must be taken ■into consideration that it only takes 36 hours to land Danish better on the English market; consequently it is •absolutely fresh; besides this the culture used for making Danish butter is such that it gives a very excellent fresh, nutty flavour, but when it comes to the question of keeping it for 3 or 4 months it would be quite unsuitable, but for immediate use it is very good indeed. In the South of Sweden, which is very fertile, the people have gone in for 'dairying to a retry great extent, and factories are well equipped. Then there 'is Finland, a country not well known, but which already produces yearly export from 8000 to 10,000 tons of very fine butter. Nothing is being spared in connection with the equipment of dairy factories in Finland; in fact, neither in Deinmark nor New Zealand have I seen better equipped concerns than I saw there. The plant and machinery is the very best money can buy, and two of these large factories are equipped with up-Ibo-ldate laboratories, staffed by the best experts, and with a duly qualified professor at the head of them. In these laboratories not only milk products are dealt with, but being purely a co-operative concern, the farmers are educated in the use of the -right fertilisers for the various soils, also as to the right seed to use, all being carefully selected and tried before sale to the farmer. To see what is being done in other countries in connection with the production of butter and cheese is indeed food for reaction. Merchants in Tooley Street will tell you that Finnish butter is of very high grade, and comes to hand regularly in uniform quality. Then we have Siberian butter, which is also coming in pretty largely now, and the quality is improving, also butter from the Baltic States, where they are the very best machinery and men to deal with their milk produce, and, therefore, making great headway. There can be no doubt that this butter is mostly used for blending with better of a higher quality from other parts. Now the Argentine is again sending large quantities of butter Hjome, and as it is only a question of 15 days’ run, it all helps to make competition with New Zealand butter very keen. From these various countries we may expect within the next few years a very large quantity of butter, and the result of this will, I predict affect New Zealand markets.