CHEESE PRODUCTION

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 266, 3 February 1941, Page 4

CHEESE PRODUCTION

Sir,—l notice that the Minister of Agriculture wants farmers to produce more cheese to satisfy the requirements of the British Government. This may mean same farmers and factories changing over to cheese from butter. The thought at once strikes farmers of the Rangi-t taiki Plains: '-Are we doing as much as we might in the war effort? Could wc have a cheese factory as well as our big butter factory? Of course it would cost suppliers and the Dairy Coy a lot of we can afford it. At meeting of the Dairy Coy there was a good deal of support for a proposal to spend £0250 of the supji pliers' money, to give a Spitfire aeroplane to help in the defence of Britain. Well then, perhaps we could spend that sum or more on getting a cheese factory going for next season. Britain seems to have plenty of aeroplanes now, but can still do with a few thousand tons of cheese. How good it would be if the farmers of the Rangitaiki Plains could export, say, 1000 tons of cheese, as a worth-while contribution to the war ;i effort. This might not mean reducing our present butter output, but might reflect the increased production which everyone hopes to have next season—weather, labour and other circumstances permitting. Of course, there are difficulties, as our company directors will tell us, but if the expense involved is the biggest hurdle, then we coukl sur/iy get over that. The dairy company and most of its suppliers are in prosperous circumstances as compared with the munition factories and workers in Britain who are getting bombed at their work. k The closely settled district round Edgecumbe lends itself to the establishment of a big cheese factory. There must be enough cows within 2 or 3 miles of Edgceumbe to fill up 10 or 20 vats of milk and so make 1000 to 2000 tons of cheese. That would leave all the rest of the district to keep the cream lorries 'busy. There are a lot of ex-Taran-aki farmers in this district who have supplied cheese factories and would not mind changing over to cheese. Of course, somebody would have to pay for hundreds of milk cows, but what of that? This is wartime. Another jmint js as to whether there are cheesemaking plants and cheeseworkers available in the country. So" many young men are in the army, so it must be a job to keep nny sort of factory properly staffed, more so a cheese factory,- which requires a man for every vat. These are just some ideas that occur :to me. Perhaps I am all wrong, but never mind. Yours etc., CHEESE MITF.