ARGENTINE BUTTER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19365, 23 July 1925, Page 8

ARGENTINE BUTTER

TRAINING A COMPETITOR. I Air. M. A. O'Callaghan, writing to the Daily Telegraph, gives an interesting account of his experiences in Argentina, where he is now engaged in organising the dairy industry of that country. When he first took up his new duties, Mr. O’Oallaghan found the butter tai lowy, and some of it with the flavour of sour cheese. At lhe principal factory —one of the finest buildings of its kind in tho world —the cream is divided into two sections, namely, cream which is separated at a separating station, to which the farmers bring their milk and cream which, in Australia, is separated at tho home of the farmer. A good deal of the former comes daily whereas the home separator creftim is despatched but two or three times in a week during the summer. “I am agreeably surprised to find that tho creamery is mostly very good, but more than 60 per cent, of the homo separator cream was inferior, being overripe and cheesy. Surely, hfter all these years of experience of creams in many countries, I am not mistaken —good butter can surely be made from this nicely-bcid best cream!

“What is the skeleton in the cupboard? I enquire. And again I am told that the farmers never wash their hands and that the milk is dirty—the erdam will not make butter that will keep. Yes but surely it will keep for a day nr two. Next day I inform them. I will clasSfv tho eream myself. One is naturally a bit shy of rushing things when every man round him talks a strange tongue. My secretarial interpreter was not then in residence. THE ROOT OF THE TROUBLE. “I classifv a certain amount of the cream on exactly the same basis as that which 1 taught in New South \Vnie« Ir addition. 1 neutralise an 1 pasteurise a portion bv giving the can* a hot Hath for 40 minutes. On the morrow butter is made; it is somowh.i, metallic in taste, otherwise pre ty good T had neutralised the acid in both creams. On looking o the cause of the metallic flavou. I soon find one of tho ghosts of Argentine dairying, nam< . ru. cans Oh, for a good aluminium ran factory such ns I understand Australia is now buildino as n result of mv enquiries in France nnd Englund last

A f,,, v days and I am convinced Unit no person in this factory Im- ’'V haziest notion of how to c assi v cream correctly. T now put an ndvertisement in the press for two young men who wished to be trained ns cream graders. About 300 young men storm cd our citv office next day nnd 100 ol these were sent to the factory or nn further classification. It toot mo a dav I made a first selection of In e. which I later cut down to two one ol whom is a Now Zealander. Ihey tire both doing well! MAKING CHOICE BUTTER. "For three weeks 1 stay nt tins factory; it took me all this time Io Iget one pasteuriser (flash system) installed. However. lUm rewarded. (From the second lot of pasteurised terrain a butter is made good enough I for anything. T divide it into two lots. I to one'of which I cause the usual boron (preservative lo be added. and the other is made without presort ativ e. ’As salt is never used for butter manling here unless to a special order, neither lot contained any salt. "I have still in the freezing room lherc a box of butter without preserv’v | live It is two months old and I would crado it 93 points to-day! When this butter was a week old I was eonvniced that wo could make butter Imre which would not suffer from the national dis lease of tallowv flavour. I treated tins leroam in exactly the same wav that 1 'had successfully treated whole milk •for drying in Some Australian experiments.

ON THE DAIRY FARMS. “I am now satisfied with what can be done to some extent, and 1 make arrangements to go and study the country somewhat. It is warm weather, so I go south to a place named Tandil. Here the land is nicely undulating (generally speaking Argentine is as flat as the groat pl*ain country in Australia). ami the pastures are sweet. It reminds me somewhat of the Upper Hunter River Valley in New South I Wales. I motored about 50 miles north. I south, Oast and west from this little town. , iii "Everywhere, one saw largo herds nt rod coloured Shorthorn cows that would at a little distance pass for Australian ■Milking Shorthorns. This was my greatest surprise. I had boon led to expect to see grdat big. coarse, beefy rows too fat to have much room for an udder. 4< T have since, however, learned that this district is the Illa warm of Argon tina. Here the ostaneios and farmers have boon dairying for some years, and every voar they rear tho heifer calves. After 15 years of such selection it is not surprising that one sees nrttny fine types of dairy cows.