SOUTH ISLAND DAIRYING

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 816, 13 May 1910, Page 8

SOUTH ISLAND DAIRYING

ASSOCIATION'S EEPOBT.

Much interesting matter is contained in the report of the South Island Dairy Association,, to be presented ■at the annual meeting in Dunediu'on Juno 1. .In conjunction with the' North lsltmd Association, the directors have renewed the contract with the Shaw-JSavill and New ■ Zealand Shipping Companies for a further period of live years, and have secured several improvements in its terms. The shipping companies have agreed to pay the extra coastal freight of 2s. Gd. a tun from gradiug pjrts to ocean strainers. Dealing with the proposed monthly eales of produce, the directors stato that they hope, to see something definite,done as the meetings held by the factories have been favjucible. During the soa6On excellent prices have ruled in Great Britain for our butter and good prices for cheesp. Butter has heen at a nigh iprice through • the season, and, more 'satisfactory, still, in high favour owing to its quality. . ' „ "The present Minister of Agriculture, continues the report, "is an enthusiastic supporter of tho dairy industry, and it .is to bo hoped that Parliament will support him with all the 'funds he requires to further extend the good work of this branch of the Department be presides over. We "must keep on advancing and -never go back, and the dairy industry will amply repay to the community at large any expenditure - judiciously made for its advancement. Very soon it. will ■stand second on the list of our. exports iin value. It is third at present, and ■*ventuaUy, it may stand first. But its value ,to New Zealand ,in • making close .settlement not only possible but profiteble, can hardly be overestimated. "The consumption of. butter seems increasing more rapidly -'than the largest .suppliers (Denmark-and Kussia) increase their exports. Continental nations.seem likely to absorb the- increase expected from Siberia and, to a largo extent, the Danish increase. The . consumption of ■milk in Great Britain is increasing, and absorbs a good deal, of milk that.used to b« turned into butter • and cheese. ■ "The British make of cheese is estiimated at 140,000 tons; New Zealand and 'Canada supply about 100,000 tons; foreign countries about 24,000 tons. -According to statistics during the past five years, and also according .to Jslr. Rudoick s (Canadian Dairy Commissioner) latest statement, the export of Canadian cheese is likely to still decrease, owing :o increasing home consumption. It has de■•creased steadily 9000 tons since 1906: Notwithstanding an increase from New Zeajland, the total imports of cheese into ■ Great Britain are less since 1901 by ; 18,953 tons'. There is ample room for any .•increase tbat. may be possible in cheese 'from New; Zealand. . . •. . "Prices of both butter and cheese may fluctuate year by year, according ■ to' the fctate of trade ana other conditions that may from time to time prevail, but consumption will still increase as in.the •past, and there is , every' reason to. exipect that good, prices must on the average prevail for butter and cheese in the future. . , ■ "We must now put forward every effort jto improve our dairy herds,-and to-this lend all dairymen should'study the .work Idone by Government, at the Dalefield ' iCow-testing Association tliis. season. . It .is proved that these cow-testing associations pay handsomely in New Zealand, .as they have done in Donmark and Canada for some years. We must try •and provide good winter feed for our cattle, in addition : to, if not instead of, turnips , ." , . . •'.'..■ '..'■■'."■■'. Tables appended to the report show that the shipments of cheese to London and the West "dr England from southern ports were as follow -.—Bluff, 68,531 crates; . Dnnedin, 18,793*£<ji&tes; 'Lyttelton, ! crates; the increases on last'season-be-ing: Bluff, 10,959 crates; Dnnedin, 2191 ■ crates; Lyttelton, 27G3 crates. The increase would have been very much 'greater but; for the exceptionally dry '•season. Never, the directors state, has Southland had such a dry fsnmmer, as .■•.that-of 1909-10. ■''''■'■[