Duvauchelle meeting a boost to sheep milking

Press, 16 April 1979, Page 7

Duvauchelle meeting a boost to sheep milking

A further step in the development of an industry based on sheep milk was taken at a meeting at Duvauchelle when ;. Canterbury Sheep Milkers Group was formed. The group will have .. liaison role between interested parties including sheep milkers, technical people, sheep breeders, dairy-equipment suppliers, and the Barrys Bay Cooperative Dairy Company, which will process the milk into cheese. It will help the company in its planning by providing a guide to the likely supply of milk and will also serve as a forum where sheep milkers can exchange knowledge and experiences At the meeting, called by the Barrys Bay Company and attended by 26 persons, Mr M. J. Manhire. of Robinsons Bay. was elected chairman, and Mr A. Q. South of Christchurch secretary. To help the fledgling industry' get afloat, a technical advisory group has also been formed largely within the Ministry of Agriculture, its dairy, economics, advisory services, and research divisions being represented. It will have a research role in marketing and technical aspects of the industry, and is likely to make recommendations to the Sheep Milkers’ Group. Mr G. D. Wallace, Manager of the Barrys Bay factory, said some people who were interested in

starting milking sheep were still endeavouring to get enough sheep together to make the venture worth while, and they would also be dependent on the supply of equipment But if everything fitted together for them, there were likely to be 10 persons in a position to supply the company with sheep’s milk in the coming season. By the following season, Mr Wallace says, there may be another eight to 10 sheep milkers. It is expected that the >ext season will be in the nature of a trial. In the lasi two seasons the factory has produced a tonne of cheese a year Ironi sheep milk produced experimentally at the Ministry of Agriculture's Templeton research station. Next season Mr Wallace expects the tonnage to increase to 20 to 25, and he is confident that it will be possible to dispose of all of this on the New Zealand market, which returns about $5 a kilogram of cheese, and looks like being the most profitable. Australia import-- about 1000 tonnes of cheese a year based on sheep milk, but the return from that market would be less than half of that from the New Zealand market — about $2.30 a kilogram. Those associated with the industry do not foresee any mushroom growth, but Mr Wallace said that at the sheepdairying field day held recently at Templeton, a

-peaker had sliced th*- ■ one per cent of the na' ional ewe flock w milked and '.he produci exported, the return wouii be about S3OM in oversea xchange. The meeting conclude! with a demonstration ■’ sheep-milking equipmen hy Alfa-Laval, the lone standing manufacturer <> dairs equipment Mi iten of interest, and a contras in size to the cups use< on milking machines f<> sheep, were those used (•■ milking yaks