A LESSON FOR N.Z.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18430, 14 March 1922, Page 8

A LESSON FOR N.Z.

DAIRYING IN DENMARK. SOME INTERESTING FACTS. Mr. F. J. Nathan, who has just returned from a trip abroad, had some interesting remarks to make to a meeting of suppliers to the Maharahara Dairy Factory. Mr Nathan stressed the point that the costs of production must be reduced if New Zealand produce is to compete with that from other countries in the markets of the world, and to do this tne wages paid to workers in the industries would have to be reduced the sooner that fact was recognised the better. Speaking of Denmark, Mr. Nathan said in that country—which is about equal in area to the province of Wellington—there are 1600 factories, against 600 in New Zealand. He was struck with the extreme thriftiness of the Danish people. Everyone there ate margar■ne—the poor because they cannot afford butter, the rich so that their country may have more butter for export. Every drop of milk was sent io the factory, and if the farmer desired to take any skim milk he had to buy it from the factory. The procedure of manufacture was the same as ours. Cows were all kept tethered and milked three times a day, and of course they were all housed and fed at night, with a plentiful supply of water beside them. He considered the Danish cows, which were something like Red Shorthorns, the best type of general utility cow he had seen. They were heavy milkers and good fat producers. His remarks as to the treatment of cows in New Zealand were, he declared, received with incredulity by the people of Denmark, who bestow as much care on their cows as New Zealanders do on a racehorse. They could not believe that cows were just brought in to be milked and turned out again, 'winter and summer, to endure the variations of heat and cold with nothing but what they could forage for themselves, and whet hay the farmer chooses to give them in the winter. In Denmark the cows are always brushed and housed and fed all the year round. The whole dairy industry was organised, and this was a great factor in the hold of Danish butter on the English markets. Every four days the merchant knew they would receive a certain quantity of Danish butter and always of a certain standard. American houses had told him the same thing. They said “We can depend on getting so much Danish butter in each shipment throughout the year, and it is of uniform quality. With the New Zealand product it is different. We get it once, and then we hear no more of it for months. Besides, we thing the New Zealand graders are altogether too generous.” With cheese, however, he thought the position was different. There was no doubt New Zealand Cheddar was greatly superior to the American article, and he thought it quite possible New Zealand cheese would command a good market there, but of course inquiries as to price they would give, etc., would need to be made. Mr. Nathan thought much could, and should be done to imprive the butter-fat yield of cows in New Zealand. In New Zealand the average production of butter-fat was 163 lbs. per cow, he believed. In Eureka (California,) the 44 best herds averaged 4641bs of fat per annum, and the worst averaged 3601b5. When the farmers there started herd testing and found their butter-fat records unsatisfactory they set to work to improve their herds by culling and importing purebred bulls of strong milking strains. He recommended this course to the farmers of New Zealand, testing, culling, and getting the best bulls of good butter-fat strain. He felt sure the war prices for dairy produce were gone, and it was therefore all the more necessary that herds should be improved and more intensive methods of farming adopted, so that a greater output might be obtained and of a better quality. Referring to what he had seen of labour conditions, Mr. Nathan said he considered the conditions of living much better here than anywhere else, but he was struck by the way everyone worked both in Denmark and in Germany. Every factory and works was in full swing, there was absolutely no one unemployed, and no factories idle, as there were in England. Everyone was hard at work and living very much plainer than they were in New Zealand. He wished his hearers to understand that these were the conditions against which they had to compete. And there was' also the fact that New Zealand suffered from a great lack of advertisement. Comparatively speaking few people in America, for instance, had ever heard of New Zealand or its resources, and he found ignorance concerning it very prevalent. In moving a vote of thanks to Mr Nathan Mr. J. Gildea, chairman of directors, said he thought the trouble with New Zealand farmers, was that they had too much land. If they had only half the area they could farm it better.