DOMINION’S DAIRYING SEASON.

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21199, 23 August 1940, Page 14 (Supplement)

DOMINION’S DAIRYING SEASON.

Mortality Among the Herds

Dairy Division's Annual Review. Although the production of Waikato dairy companies showed a gratifying increase last season, the annual report of the Dairy Division of the Department of Agriculture indicates the past two seasons were not favourable to the Dominion as a whole. In the report, however, the figures relating to butter and cheese gradings are given only up to March 3 I. It is seldom, states the report, that New Zealand experiences two unfavourable dairying seasons in succession, but in most dairying districts throughout the Dominion both 1938-39 and 1939-40 were climatically unfavourable to production. In the North Island the very serious shortage of feed for dairy cattle which resulted from the dry weather in the closing months of the 1938-39 season brought about a considerable reduction in the output at that period. As a consequence the amount of winter feed saved was considerably reduced, and such small stocks as could be saved had to be used in the autumn months, so that many dairy-farmers found themselves with insufficient reserves to carry stock over the winter. As a result there was a heavy mortality among dairy cows in the North Auckland-Bay of Plenty and Poverty Bay districts, and to a lesser extent in other areas also. In some areas a prolific growth of clover in the spring also added to the number of deaths of dairy cows, up to 10 per cent of the cows being lost in some herds. As a consequence of these losses production was affected over the whole season. It was not until about December that weather conditions were favourable, and until January output showed a reduction in comparison with the corresponding period of the previous season. The good rainfall experienced in most dairying districts in December, 1939, however, resulted in an exceptionally heavy growth of grass, and it is many years since such favourable conditions for production have been experienced during the late months of the financial year. Quantities Graded For Export In terms of butter-fat the quantity of butter and cheese graded for export during the year ended March 31, 1940, showed a decrease of 4176 tons, or 2.98 per cent, over the total butter-fat represented in butter and cheese graded during the preceding financial year. Creamery butter received for grading during the year under review amounted to 12 3,277 tons, and cheese 86,486 tons, as compared with 129,277 tons butter and 84,236 tons cheese for 1938-39, a decrease of 6050 tons butter (4.67 per cent) and an increase of 2250 tons cheese (2.67 per cent). The increased production of cheese may be accounted for by the diversion of five factories from the manufacture of butter and casein to the manufacture of cheese. This change was prompted by the poor demand for casein and the low prices offering.

Of the total amount of butter received for grading, 92,131 tons was produced in the Auckland Province, as against 92,501 tons during the previous year, a decrease of 370 tons. Export Values Including all dairy-produce—butter, cheese, casein, dried milk, sugar-of-milk, condensed milk, and cream—and basing export values on Customs figures, there was an increase of £451,748 in the value of this year’s dairy-produce, the total values for the two financial years 1939-40 and 1938-39 being £22,907,700 and £22,455,952 respectively. Customs values are based on realisation values. The increase in total value in the face of a decrease in total quantity exported was due solely to the influence of the war. Until the end of August, 1939, prices on the Home market for both butter and cheese were lower than for the corresponding period of the previous financial year. The war, however, brought a change in the tone of the market, while the British Government’s purchase price for both butter and cheese wras at a level considerably higher than the level of prices ruling for the past two or three years. The net result was an increased average realisation value for the twelve months in comparison with the 1938-39 financial year. Creamery Butter The principal faults connected with butter quality may be traced to feed conditions, and, while feed flavour was very prevalent in the Auckland Province and to a certain extent in other districts during the early months of the season, it is probable that the quality for the later months has never been on a higher average level. Nevertheless, the improvement came too late to quite correct the falling-off in average grade in the early part of the season, with the result that the average grade for the financial year barely maintained that of the previous twelve monfrs. The average grade of butter graded for export during the year ended March 31, 1940, was 93.361 points, compared with 93.373 points for 1938-39. Of the 123,349 tons of butter received for grading, 100,1 75 tons, or 81.21 per cent, was classed as finest, 22,521 tons, or 18.25 per cent, as first grade, and 65 3 tons, or 0.5 3 per cent, under first grade. Regrading of Butter and Cheese The re-examination of selected representative samples of butter and cheese after a period of storage for the purpose of checking their keeping qualities and the accuracy of the original grading has been extended during the year. Regrading at various grading stores covered 207 churnings of butter and 1 89 vats of cheese. These trials are of distinct benefit from the point of view of the study of defects due to lengthy periods of storage. They also enable a check on the original gradings, and it is reassurring to find that in the great majority of cases the original grading standards are confirmed. Visits to dairy factories by officers of the Division for the purpose of checking the testing of milk and cream totalled 1074, as compared with 1044 during 1938-39. Short-Crediting of Butter-fat Efforts have been made during previous years to reduce this method of injustice and unfair competition by bringing in regulations requiring certain procedure in the weighing and testing of milk and cream at manufacturing dairies. That unfair methods still persist at some manufacturing dairies is evidenced by the testing of butter and cheese for butterfat at the various grading-stores. From the butterfat recovered in the butter and cheese an estimate of the minimum number of pounds which should have been credited to the suppliers can be arrived at. A method whereby dairy companies giving marked short credits would have to adjust their figures as appearing in their annual reports was brought before the National Dairy Fedcra-

tion’s Conference in June, 1939, by the Director of the Dairy Division and is now under survey by the Dairy Industry Council. The giving effect to the suggestion would cause these dairy companies to add the estimated short credits to the butterfat credited to the suppliers for the year and use this total when figuring their yield of butter or cheese as per pound of butterfat, and also use the same total pounds of butterfat when figuring the price paid for butterfat for the financial year. This should eliminate some of the unfair competition as between dairy companies. It cannot, however, be brought into operation without legislation. Farm-Dairy Instruction This service, on which seventy-seven farm-dairy instructors are engaged, is now nearing the end of the second year since its extension to a Dominion-wide basis, and there is already ample evidence of its great value to the industry. Even in those districts where it was received in the first instance with a certain amount of reserve the services of the Farm-dairy Instructors are now welcomed, and an improvement in the quality of the milk and cream received at dairy factories is evidence of the value of the work being done. Advices received by officers of the Division indicate that 4394 milking-machine installations were made during the past financial year, as compared with 3095 during the previous twelve months. Attempts to improve milking-machines are still persisting, and seventeen new devices were submitted for inspection during the year. The three officers of the Division attached to the High Commissioner s Office in London continued their routine duties from the commencement of the financial year to the outbreak of war. The advent of control by the Imperial Ministry of Food created an interval during which certain necessary adjustments had to be made, and during that period assistance was given by our officers to the Food Ministry as requested. Later it was more fully recognised that this voluntary assistance was valuable in facilitating the smoother working-out of the Ministry’s scheme in certain directions. The senior officer of the Dairy Division in London was then asked to become responsible for the classification of imported butters, so as to avoid certain difficulties which had been experienced by the sending to certain markets of qualities which were not suited to those markets. |