IMPROVING THE QUALITY

Waikato Times, Volume 104, Issue 17493, 29 August 1928, Page 9

IMPROVING THE QUALITY

HINTS TO DAIRYMEN. CHIEF GRADER’S ADVICE. EVERY SUPPLIER CAN HELP. An exceedingly helpful address was given to suppliers of the Te Awamutu Co-operative Dairy Co., at their annual meeting yesterday, by Mr W. Dempster, Ciiieti Government Grader for the Auckland province. In urging the great necessity for keeping up the quality of New Zealand produce. Mr Dempster said the first essential towards this end was to get a good raw material. ite could say without hesitation that New Zealand butter was the finest that entered the London market. We would always be able to obtain a good price for good produce. The New Zealand standard of grading was uniform, and the grading was done, not for the New Zealand market, but to suit the London buyer. The grading of butter in New Zealand was more complete than in any other country. In Denmark the grading was not done by Government officials, but by company officials. In New Zealand the cream graders were put through a thorough test before being licensed, and in the Auckland province the speaker earnestly believed, that every grader was honestly doing his best for the business. _ Nothing gathered foreign flavours quicker than cream. Proceeding to deal with the question of llavour, Mr Dempster said the slightest change of feed or of the conditions in the separator or in the shed, was retlected in the flavour of the cream. The dirty milker was really in a very small minority, and he was easily dealt with. Any improvement in the quality of our produce was not going' to come through him. The improvement must come from the 80 or 90 per cent of good dairymen, by all striving to improve the quality of tiieir cream. Feed flavours could be put into cream in different ways. Straight-out feed flavours, such as, for instance, those caused through feeding on turnips, did not develop in the cream. If, however, the machine was not cleaned ; after turnip-fed cream had been put | through it, succeeding cream that ; passed through would develop a feed | flavour which would develop through ! the action of bacteria. Another great i source of danger to cream was a polluted atmosphere iu or about the shed. Very often the fine bacteria of dried manure were drawn into the i cream during the process of milking, while any strong smells would he picked up immediately by cream. To get highest quality cream, therefore, it was very essential to have sweet surroundings and clean machinery. It was important, in this respect, to have the separator room on the leeward side of the buildings, so that wind would not carry odours over the room. It should also he separate from the engine-room to avoid benzine and oil flavours. Every single piece of the machinery and equipment must be cleansed after eacli milking. Putting milk into rusty cans gave a metallic flavour which could not he got rid of, and the Government intended, during the coming season, to be very stringent in refusing to allow rusty cans to he used, It was necessary to properly cool the cream and not to mix hot and cold cream together. Another small but important point was that on the cans being returned they should have their lids removed immediately to enable the air to get at and sweeten the interior. Disinfectants about a shed transferred their odours to the cream, as did the use of certain specifics on the teals of the cows. Brushes should be used in preference to cloths for cleansing utensils, and the brushes should, immediately after use, be washed and hung out in the sun to dry and freshen. Sudden changes from one kind of food to another had a deci<4pd effect on the cream. A well-balanced diet was essential at ail times, but particularly during the spring, when the animals were inclined to rush the new grass. A final precautionary measure which Mr Dempster mentioned was not to pour warm water through the separator after the final run, but to pour through, instead, skim milk.