THE WAIKATO FARMER

Waikato Times, Volume 113, Issue 18950, 20 May 1933, Page 19 (Supplement)

THE WAIKATO FARMER

EDITED BY 0. E. CUMIi

A Great Opportunity. Never was there such an opportunity to place the dairying industry oi\ an improved and more permanently profitable basis. Professor Riddet and Dr, Mardsen, in their valuable joint bulletin on “ Problems of the Dairy Industry,” suggest many reforms, mainly to be left to the good -sense of the industry. In 'regard to the vital matter of improved quality of the raw material they say: "We should ruthlessly eliminate raw milk and cream supplies of low quality rather than spread the reduction indiscriminately. 1 ’ It is well to have this statement, but •how is the poor quality milk—the greatest menace to the industry— to be eliminated? If left to the industry it will never be done. What is wanted is drastic state action.

* # # * State Officers Must Grade Supplies.

High quality milk and cream will never be secured with the present competition between factories and while an employee of the particular company is responsib)° *or any grading of the raw material that lakes place. Tho grading must be done by an independent Government official. Just as meat Inspection is done by Government officers but the cost of the service paid for by the meat export companies so state experts must do the grading of the cream and milk and the dairy companies pay the salaries of the experts.

Stricter Grading Necessary.

Not only is it essential to have the grading done by independent men but the standard must be raised. At the present time suppliers who are prepared to take special care in the handling of their raw material and cooling it properly on the farm have become absolutely discouraged. We have a case in mind where a man who took the greatest care with his cream, keeping the night cream separate from tho morning cream and cooling the cream well, now mixes his cream and does not cool it. But lie still gets superfine grade! Men who are prepared to produce high-grade rawmaterial, without which it is impossible to manufacture superfine butter and cheese, must be encouraged and the men who deliver Indifferent and poor quality milk or cream must be forced into line.

Quality Must Be Paid For,

Grading to a higher standard is not alone sufficient. It must be accompanied with a higher premium for the choicer article. Sheds and milking machines will be maintained as they should be only when there is some reward for the extra work and care, and especially when the superior product is valued more than the product of those who work under such conditions that their product cannot be suitable for the making of high grade butter and cheese. # * :* # Inferior Produce. •Keen grading by .independent officials would at once definitely raise the standard of the bulk of our produce. But in these days of fierce market competition a further step which would enormously strengthen our position on the Home markets would be allowing the export of only butter and cheese of the choicer grades. All inferior butter and cheese should be barred from shipment. This would be a further incentive to suppliers of poor quality raw material to rapidly fall Into' line. There is little or nothing in the argument, except the need for installing a proper water supply, that improved equipment would have to be installed to obtain high quality milk or cream. The chief requirement is cleanliness, and even with a moderate supply of water cleanliness can be ensured where there is the necessary will- and energy. In any case a man who will make no serious attempt to deliver clean and cold milk or cream should not be allowed to contaminate the whole of the factory supply and injure the reputation of tho Dominion's produce.

Many Reforms Necessary.

We are not unmindful of the fact that absolute cleanliness on the farm Is not everything, that mammltis milk for Instanco may cause serious trouble in the cheese-making process. For this reason grading by the bacterial count Is to be preferred. Then, cheesemaking Is an art whioh demands of the maker of It something more than rule-of-thumb methods. Again, cheese factory managers should be encouraged by their directorates to aim at quality rather than at yield. Finally in the all-important matter of cleanliness many factories could provide a much better example to their suppliers than they do; and cleanliness Is tho foundation stone of quality.

The Danish Farmer. The Hon. John S. Martin, Minister of Agriculture for Ontario. who visited Denmark a few years ago, reported oil iiis return-, lliaL very few Danish farmers wore able to afford the luxury of owning an automobile, ami (that file ownership by a farmer of a bicycle reprcsenltui about the same degree of prosperity in Denmark as the ownership of a good ear by a farmer docs in Canada.

A page devoted to assisting the .Waikato farmer to make the fullest possible use of the great natural advantages of the Waikato and to thereby develop the most prosperous farming community in the world.