CHEESE CHANGE-OVER

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 147, 27 August 1941, Page 5

CHEESE CHANGE-OVER

FARMERS GETTING RLADY

MUCH TALK AND SOME WORK

NEW PROBLEMS FOR THE

RANGITAIKI

While Rangitaiki Plains farmers—or at least about a couple of hundred of them —are awaiting the order to change over from 1 butter supply to cheese supply they are free to talk a great deal about how it will affect the even tenor of their workaday lives. Some farmers are already making adjustments and alterations in the vicinity; of their milking sheds and roadside gates with a view to sending away bulky milk instead of compact cream. Others are fully occupied with the routine business of milking and feeding their cattle, attending to newly-calved cows, and other seasonal work that keeps farmers on the move.

Current rumour states that the cheese factory will be receiving milk about September 20, by which time most of the cows in local herds will have calved and be milking well.

Everything is New,

New problems have been created for Rangitaiki farmers by the forthcoming change to cheese production. The situation is unique. Probably no other dairying district in New Zealand has similar problems to face. In other districts there are old-es-tablished cheese factories, which will be increasing their milk supply by taking over nearby cream suppliers. In other places milk that normally went to dried milk and glaxo factories is being made into cheese.

On the Rangitaiki Plains the farmers have had to start a new organisation in order to hi alt e cheese foT war needs. A new cheese factory is being provided near the Paper Mills. It will have an output exceeded bv few other factories in New Zealand —probably well over 2000 tons. In normal times a cheese factory turning out 1000 tons of cheese and collecting milk from a radius not greater than 3 miles was considered a big factory. No Wastte Time'. The' new factory at Whakatane will work double shift, so that its milk vats and machineryl will be put to good use for much of the 24 hours. Milk will be collected from farms as far away as Thornton and Awaken, halfway across the Plains.

The prospective suppliers of the new factory are "new chums" at tho. cheese supply business—at least as far as this district is concerned. A few may have supplied cheese factories in other districts. The big problem that suppliers on the Ran* gitaiki Plains will face is", that thev have to put their cans of milk out on the roadside to be collected bv" motor lorry "and taken to the cheese factory. This is not as easy as it seems. In old-established cheese, factory districts the suppliers live within easy distance of their factory, and take their milk there by means of spring drays, two-horse waggons or motor trucks—according to the size of the lead of milk cans. The nearest suppliers can be at the factory at 7 a.m., and those furtherest away may get there at 9 a.m. So it is a ease of each for himself, and everyone seems satisfied.

Such a fre<;-and-easy style will nor oe possible for the 200 or so suppliers of the new Whakatane cheese factory. They will have to get their milk out to the road before the collecting lorry comes along—and there will have to be no waiting or delay. Lucky indeed are those suppliers whose milking sheds are only a few chains from the road. Not so lucky are those whose sheds< are a considerable distance from the road. Getting the Milk Out. Every prospective supplier has done much thinking—and talking also, no doubt—as to how he will get his cans of milk on to a platform at the roadside. Where the distance is a matter of hundreds of yards the cans will have to be cartcd in a dray, waggon or motor truck. Where the milking shed is only a chain or two back from the road it seems hardly worth while to use a dray.

In such cases the suppliers may be able to put down tram rails and use a truck with flanged wheels to roll their cans out to the road. Some suppliers have already collected wheels and rails and will shortly be laying down the "permanent way" for their "branch lines."

Where the job of getting the milk (Continued in next column)