WAR-TIME CHEESE PRODUCTION

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 165, 8 October 1941, Page 4

WAR-TIME CHEESE PRODUCTION

A WEEK ago the new cheese factory of the Rangitaiki Plains Dairy Coy. on the outskirts of Whakatane started making cheese. By the end of the month, no doubt, the first of this factory's cheese will have been shipped away to the grading stores. So begins a new chapter in the history of farming on the Rangitaiki Plains. Cheerfully, all hands have tackled the task of supplying more cheese as part of New Zealand's war effort in what has been termed 'A War of Production." Armies must be equipped and fed. Britain can make much of the equipment. New Zealand can supply Us much of the food requirements as there is shipping available to carry it. In this spirit hundreds of people of this district have gone about the business of producing more cheese. Three months ago the scheme was explained to Rangitaiki Plains farmers at a meeting at Awakeri. They were requested to change Over from supplying home-separated cream to milk in bulk. In the short space of 90 days a factory has been equipped, milking sheds have been altered to meet the new needs, a new milk collection service has been organised, and now cheese production has started on a small scale. Next month may see the factory working at full capacity. Factory workers and- farmers are ready to take up their new work, but a big factory cannot get going in an instant. Perhaps few people realise how much thinking, planning and hard toil has been needed in the past 90 days by all sections of the community—the directors, suppliers, contractors, workmen, factory staff. There may have been mistakes, experiments, minor delays, and a certain amount of inconvenience. What really matters is that cheese is now being made, thanks to the co-operation of many willing hands.