Wairarapa Standard Published Trl-weekly, Price 1d. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1886. Dairy Farming in the Future.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XIX, Issue 2008, 22 December 1886, Page 2

Wairarapa Standard Published Trl-weekly, Price Id. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1886. Dairy Farming in the Future.

Pbofessoe Long recently delivered an address on “ The Dairy Farming of the Future,” to the West Firle (Sussex) Farmers’ Club, in the course of which he said he believed dairy farming, which is yet in its infancy in England, will, in the future, be very intimately associated with British agriculture, and he concluded that its success depended upon—(l) a more thorough knowledge of dairy cattle and their capacity as milk and butter producers; (2) feeding for a maximum butter yield with a special reference to the scientific, or, as it really ought to be called, the economically arranged ration ; (3) a greater knowledge of cream raising and churning in order to obtain all the butter which is in the milk; (4) a greater perfection in butter making and preserving, so that butter made in a cheap season may be held over until prices rise ; and (5) the profitable utilisation of skim milk. Professor Long says there are three leading systems of dairying—the sale of milk, the manufacture of cheese, and the manufacture of butter. In order to arrive at some idea as to the probable results from each, he assumes that a dairy retui js the round sum of 500 gallons of milk per cow. This, sold at 8d per gallon, would yield £l6 13s 4d. The . Wisher in some parts of the price is ! . nihejg and can, country and lower m of course, be regulated by any producer to suit his own case. Asi dairy, making cheese at the rate a * cwt or 4801b, and selling it at the averageprice of 655, would return ailo, or, with the whey and whey butter, valued at £3, £l6. Cheese, however, is subject to fluctuations in price j it, is a somewhat risky business on that account, but the maker always lives in hopes of realising high figures. Against this possible result he has to meet the expense of the daily labor incurred in cheesemaking, and, unlike the xnilkseller and the butter maker he is compelled to wait a long time for his money. Cheesemaking may be varied, and should he varied by huttermaking when butter pays better, and b? milk-selling when prices are high, although it is more difficult to sell to the trade, unless by joatywt> for evident reasons. In butter making, assuming the very moderate return of 11b to twelve quarts or 30lb of milk we should get 1701b of butter, which, at Is 4d, perhaps a high average, gives £ll 6s Bd. At 3d a gallon, the 450 gallons, roughly •Making, °f skim-milk would yield 6d. 9V in all £1619s 2d. In £5 iio ' however, 3d would the ordinary waj, is a feanot be reached; but as * —**- ture which dairy farmers should pu, - sue with great energy, Professor Long is persuaded that they can reach, and, indeed, exceed it. The butter dairy he contends is the most elastic of the three, first, because it is possible to to both breed and feed with success for an increase of butter ; next, because by the production of high quality better prices can be obtained ; and lastly, because of the various uses to which the skim milk can be put. In each instance there is scope for the dairyman to increase the yield of his cows by the introduction of better cattle and the adoption of more careful feeding, even to 800 gallons per cow, which would, of course make a material difference in the result. In milk selling there is the cost of carriage, the expense and annoyance of daily delivery to the station, and the objectionable proviso, which almost all contracts contain, to keep up a certain regular supply of milk, whic' necessitates the continual purchasing,of Iresh animals. The butter dairy, then, appears to him to offer the greatest advantage, more especially if it is conducted upon the improved system and with the best appliances at hand.

The Professor then speaks of the advantages of a centrifugal separator for large dairies, and quotes , 3 following figures to show its s' : > ority over any other plan of c-oam raising. In one instance, at the Sudbury Dairy, something occurred to prevent the milk being separated by the machines in the ordinary way. On a certain day 19,3251b of milk skimmed by hand, and produced ' ’-•'Hfir. or lib to over 15 5001b ot out. " ' "“"V next day

quarts of milk. Uninu ~ , 19,6081b of milk were passed lhrou fe .. the machine, and produced 6491b of butter, or 11b to 12 quarts of milk. Here was a saving of nearly 1491b, which is one of such magnitude that it needs no further comment. Another instance is that referring to the dairy of Colonel Curtis Hayward, in Gloucestershire, which he had recently visited. Here the cattle are Shorthorns and Jerseys, the former very largely predominating ; and yet, in spite of the fact that Jerseys alone are supposed to produce butter at the rate of 11b per 801b of milk, or eight quarts, and then only very good Jerseys, Colonel Curtis Hayward’s average for the whole of his herd—about fifty in number—for some three months previous to his visit was 11b to about 201b of milk; indeed, in many cases in November and December the milk ratio was only '°Mb to lib of butter, and this was to* ‘ - th§ agsiitaaoe of tba leparalolelybjf-

tor. This return, says the Professor, is so phenomenal, so extraordinary, that if it can be obtained or even approached by any ordinary butter making farmer he would undoubtedly find, at the end of the first year, that he had made a return of at least 25 per cent more than usual. It will be seen that where butter is sold at 16d a lb it would yield 8d a gallon for the milk without dealing with the skim milk at all, or 9£d, assuming that the skim milk is sold at 2d, a price which is far beneath its real feeding value.