BUTTER PRODUCTION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 88, Issue 94, 21 April 1944, Page 4

BUTTER PRODUCTION

FARMERS AND INCREASED ALLOWANCE • OKOIA COMPANY DIRECTORS !"3TEST Statements that several fanners were going out of dairying through shortage of labour and intended selling their herds were made at a meeting of directors of the Okoia Cooperative Dairy Factory Company, Ltd., on Wednesday, but those were deprecated by directors, who urged suppliers to increase the production of butter to the maximum in view of overseas needs. Further evidence of the directors’ appreciation of the urgent need for more butter was a circular issued to suppliers immediately after the meeting, offering financial assistance to suppliers and prospective suppliers for the purchase of stocks.

"If an adequate reward had beefl paid for butterfat during the past five years production would not have declined to such an extent that an appeal lor an increase had to be issued by the Prime Minister and supported by the Leader of the Opposition,” said Mr. T. E. Wilson, chairman of directors. “The meagre wage cost allowance of 1.21 d per lb. now announced by the Government provides for the employee only and furnishes no reward for the farmer himself. The industry has been treated so badly, especially in comparison with some sections of the community, that interest in dairying has steadily and consistently declined; hence the appalling fall in production which is likely to be felt severely here and overseas.” Pointing out that many farmers who had been in the habit of providing ample replacements for their herds had, in recent years, been taking the easy path in sending their calves away on *he bobby-calf lorry, Mr. Wilson described the projected heifer calf subsidy scheme as “farcical.” The farmer, he said, could get 13s for his bobby calves, but was offered a subsidy of only 7s for rearing his heifer calves. Everyone in the industry knew that it cost, several pounds to rear heifer calves till they came to profit.

“You can raise two pigs with what it cost to rear one calf,” said one director, averring that the inducement was not. enough. A suggestion was made that the slaughtering of calves by farmers should be compulsorily forbidden, but it was pointed out that no farmer with an appreciation of the problem would knock his calves on the head, whatever his position. The general opinion expressed was that the price offered for butterfat was not sufficient to induce the dairy farmer to make an effort to raise production to the extent desired, but suppliers were urged to do their utmost to fill the demand from Britain in the meantime. All points raised at the meeting are likely to be brought out at a meeting of the Dairy Board’s ward conference (n Wanganui on May