BIG CO-OPERATIVE CONCERN.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1168, 1 July 1911, Page 14

BIG CO-OPERATIVE CONCERN.

« — TIIE IUVERDALE DAIRY COMIWNY. The Tiiverdale Co-operative Company illustrates the marvellous productiveness of tho Waimate .Plains. Tho factory is one of the largest in New Zealand. All its .supply is under one roof, which accommodates "thirteen cheese vats. Kiycrdale represents tho admirable qualities of South Taranaki soil for dairy farming purposes. Tho Kivcnhle factory is only about seven -years old. It started in l'JOl as a two-vat factory, and about twenty suppliers. Its first year's turnover was £KW. Now a singlo month exceeds that amount, which brings its nnnual turnover to over .f,56,000. There are 49 suppliers, and their total rami lands aggregatec CROO acres, an average of nearly 130 acres per supplier.' Excluding two big farms, the average size of the Eiverdale dairy farms is 130 acres. Some, of cuurse, are more than that area, while others arnin range as low as 50 acres, but' in the latter case the farming is of a mixed character; A splendid dairy herd is that of Mr. W. H. Ru'Foll, which returns /8 18s. per acre T>»r annum. It is orobable that the quality of tho land has a good deal to do

with this return, but there is the indubitable fact that Mr. Russell leads. Next to him this'year is Mr. E. Towler, with a Jersey .he'rd! Mi': Towlci 1 heads the season with a 7 per cent, butter-fat test. He has, in addition, p. high range of tests, and it is the general opinion that for tho closing season, he will run Mr. IJussell very close indeed. When the factory started in 1901, land was selling in immediate area, at from .£lO to ,£l2 per acre. The price is now from i!SO to ,SGD per acre, but, of course, the areas are much smaller than they were seven nr eight years ago. The position is thus described by a practical dairy farmer: "Tears ago, men farmed on 300 or -100 acres, but possibly 200 acres would never be properly worked. Nowadays the idea is to utilise every acre." This may be so in some cases, but it is a fact that there is not a great .deal of intense; farming. . even in tho Eiverdale district. Hay and ensilage are used to some extent. Mr. Russell's milk return of nearly .£9 per acre is a case whero there was naturally a certain amount of cultivation, on land generally described as "one-cow" country, but with by-products it would still be something under that average. Still, it accounts for ,£GO per, acre land. It is worthy of note in connection with tho working of the factory, of which Mr. Forsyth is manager, that in the (lush of the. season 100,000 pounds of milk is handled dnily, and that no supplier has to bring his milk much more than three miles. Tho company runs n co-operative store on very profitable lines to the shareholders. Like the majority of the other, big Taranaki factory companies, Riverdale is a, dual factory, the butter plant being installed in 1900. Last year's output was •16 tons of butter and GlB tons of cheese.