PAYMENT FOR CHEESE.

Waikato Times, Volume 109, Issue 18346, 4 June 1931, Page 9

PAYMENT FOR CHEESE.

(To the Editor). Sir,—lt is certain that the export ■of any but whole milk (full cream) cheese from New Zealand will be prohibited. This 'will be a notable victory for the while milk breeds, but those who have the best interests of the dairy farmers of New Zealand at heart will not rest content with that victory. Those in charge of the dairy industry must fate the question of an equitable system of payment for milk for cheese-making. The root of the trouble with New Zealand cheese is that yellow milk, high, testing and with large fat globules, has been largely used in its manufacture. Such milk is unsuitable. The experience of the cheese factories in the Dominion has been most unsatisfactory, prices falling in some cases to less than 50 shillings per cwt. It is pitiful to see the attempts that are still being .made to persuade dairy farmers that the quality of New Zealand cheese is particularly good, when the verdict •of ' the purchasers and consumers shows emphatically by the prices realised that New Zealand cheese does not suit the Home market requirements. Laborious but futile attempts were made at Hamilton during Winter Show week to prove that the statement that New Zealand dairy farmers were losing £1,000,000 yearly was a myth. The facts are that we export approximately 90,000 tons of cheese yearly to England, and at the prices quoted by the Journal of the Ministry of Agriculture New Zealand cheese was realising 20 shillings per cwt., i.e., £2O per ton less than Canadian and £32 per ton less than British Cheddar clfeese. When th total loss is worked put on these figures, it makes £1,000,000 look very small. Immediate and persistent action is needed, and the first step must be to get alterations made in the Articles of Association of all cheese factories so that directors may have the power to make the payment for milk supplied in what is considered by them to be the fairest way. Supplier? are, therefore, earnestly recommended to give notice of motion to have altered at the next annual meeting the Articles of Association of their Dairy Companies. When Che necessary alterations are made in the Articles of Association, then suppliers should press for the institution of a system of payment recommended by Mr P. O. Veale as being equitable to suppliers, This system retains the Babcock lest, and makes butterfat the basis of payment with additions if the casein test of a supplier’s milk is higher than the factory average casein test, and with deductions if a supplier’s casein test is below the average.—l am, etc., ' J. P. KALAUGIIER. Auckland, June, 1931.