THE CITY MILK SUPPLY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 217, 8 June 1920, Page 5

THE CITY MILK SUPPLY

THE FARMERS' SIDE OP THE QUESTION. Sir,—As a supplier largely interested in the Wellington, milk supply may X ask tlie insertion of the following in reference to tho increase in the price of j milk. The middleman seems to bo fol- | loving tho old custom of blaming tlie farmer, and as ho (tho farmer) docs not come in contact i\-ith the consumer i 1; is very easy to blame the other fellow who is not there to speak for himself. Mr. Ward, in his reply to Mr. Howell, speaks of the fiat rate of 2s. ]>cr gallon charged to the public for tho 12 months ending April 30, but he does not make it very clear what tho farmer received ont of that amount, so if yon v-il) allow me I will rive you 'tho amounts for each month'of the period named, «nd leavo your readers to judge who is responsible for tlie price:— I Price Landed Prico Period. in to ConW'gtn. sumer. j'fay Ito Sep. 10 1/4 per gal. 2/10 to Oct. 10 1/- per jjal. 2/. Oct. 10 to ,Tnn. 20 lOd.tolOJd. 2/Man. 20 to Feb. 29 1/-per gal.- 2/Feb. 2!l to Apl. 30 1/1 per gal. 2/Out of this the farmer had deducted from his prico from jjd. to ljd. per gadon freight, bringing tho price of his Bummer milk down to about Od., while tlie public were paying 2s. for the same. Oil May 1 it was decided to raise the pneo 4d. per gallon, and out of this rise tho farmer gels one farthing durlug" tho month of May and one penny for the months of Juno ami July, so you see that it has cost more to distribute the milk in Wellington than tho farmer received to produce it, and cart it, 111 some cases as far os 50 miles. t With regard to the lOJlb. to the gallon, I may state that it lias caused onoro trouble with the Suppliers than anything else. Tho 10-gallon cans provided by the council will not hold 10 gallons on that basis, and when a farmer, sends in, say, fivo full cans, and receives notice that he was short mea- ?" re , ho naturally thinks he is being had. If, as Mr. Ward states, the extra quantity per gallon is required to cover n i. S' s P ll,a & e i" handling I think that the charges for distribution should cover such loss and not the producer, and on the figures quoted above I think they should be_ quite sufficient to do so. I may stats in conclusion that ono farthing per gallon of tho rise wo havo received since May 1 was in lieu of ali!"i n Ani! /T S* 1 ® ,T llick aTe Graduated to lOjlb. to tho gallon, so that further reduces our share of the last rise of 4d. per gallon. There is plenty of land on the West Coast capable of supplying Wellington w:tli all the -winter milk it requires, but it will never do so -until it is made n.orel profitable to produce -winter milker Wellington than summer milk for a factory .-I am, etc., 1 wll '•„ T ttHITEMAN. Wallaceville, June 7. «. Sh 'r ßci ? 2 a milk Producer in Featlerston, I note Mr. W. T. Strand's 11^V 0 " 1 ' P a PW of June 3. First: I would like to point out ono little item tliat this gentleman has omitted to menlion, and that is he has calculated tho price for butter-fat on what wo get for our milk in tho summer season, when wo do not have to feed our cows in tho samo manner as we would have to do in winter. Also, he has omitted, or probably forgotten—thut is, if ho is a practimer a herd gives very •11 P lOlO tliaii half the quantity of milk that a summer herd does. There is ono question I would like to ask this gentleman, and also the chairman of tho Milk Committee: If there are such big profits.in the winter milking, why are Wellington and other large cities 22 per cent, to 25 per cent, short in their milk supply during the winter months? And also why most farmers prefer'to send their milk to the factories (as in Maugaroa Valley and other places)? Ite_ cost of feeding cows for -winter milking tho cost of pressed hay is Gs. 6d. per Dale (whichl ib likely to go higher) and cartage, and one cow will consume easily one-third of a bale per day, (besides her usual pasture. Naturally a cow ro* quires more feed in the winter to keep her warn and to produce milk. A good cow, on an average in winter, only gives 2J gallons per day; this at Is. 3d. per gallon, with tho price of feeding, does not look like a big profit. Taking our price of butter-fat at 2s. per lb. for summer milking, this -works out about !)d. per gallon, so that tliia extra Gd. in the winter, after hard feeding the cows, does not leave much margin of profit. The same herd of cows while milked .is a summer herd give extra milk and do not have to be hard fed. Speaking as a small farmer, who has to do his own milking, to get the best results out !of a hefrd of cows, they must be milked regularly night and morning, 6even days a week. -In the winter this means getting up in th« dark and going around the paddock in all weathers, -with a lantern, to find the cows, when most city folks are asleep in bed. Is it any wonder that the towns are 6hort of milk wlieii we are offered such remuneration for our labour? Other classes of labour get double pay for working overtime, but tho suiall farmer has to work all houra and all conditions of weather. Now, Sir, I should like to point out to Mr. Strand that in regard to tho prico of land going up, a principal item was the demand for our produce by the English' Government.—l am, etc., JAMES W. FTJGE. "Easterfield," Featlierston, June 4, 1920. Sir,—Mr. Strand wants to know the cost of feeding and looking after a milking cow this winter. We will avoid general observations, and come to the point. I am assuming that you have an experienced farmer, and that he is really winter milking and not merely finishing up his factory season with a questionable product. We will take a 50-cow daiiy, producing 100 gallons of milk per day. Feed per day will bo as follows per cow:-Common hay, Sib., at id.—2Jd. Clover hay, 101b., at ,ld — Itld. Grazing, 4d.ensilage, lmangel6, and green stuff, 2f1.; total. Is. 6|d. Contract milking costing one-third of product, and if the milk is sold at Is. 3d. per gallon there will bo a return of 2s. Gd. per 'cow. The contractor's reward is lOd. Tliefie two expenditures uihount to 2s, -4jd. Now, what about your shedding accommodation, with the cost of iron, timber, and cement as at present. A good shed with plant, etc., cannot cost less than ,£520, and you will have to allow 10 per cent, qn this for interest and wear and tear. This amounts to 3s. sd. per day per cow. Tho total. of tho expenditure aa above amounts to 2s. sd. per cow per day. In addition there are horses, brakes, etc., depreciation, and loss of cows. Tho fei.ding items 1 have set out only allow for a bare maintenance of a cow 1 wen if she is ablo to get 2alb. of grass j per day grazing. There aro experts at this kind of thing 011 the Dairy De- , partnK-'nt who will tell you my figures aro below the cost. The fact is that tho j spring aiul summer in tllis country of j marvellous grass production pay for tho | tosses in the winter. In. tho sunuuer <1 cow "eats her 1001b. of a day, and 110 artificials are required. Mr. Strand I is quite correct in his ostiniate of tho | loss of tho winter dairyman at Fea- i Ikerston. There are slight, errors in his figures which aro immaterial.. Very few of the factory suppliers havo winter dairies, and very great jealousy has been shown with regard to those who havo gone to tho trouble and expenso of having double dairies, and to this you may trace the present impasse. Mr. Strand ends up with oil appeal to tho great humanitarian principles. It is men liko Mr. Strand possessing theso noble aspirations Shot aro saving a world shadowed by 'sorrow and scorched by suffering, but so far as my observation goes the towns havo adopted a variation of the above, enunciated forcibly by Ebon Holdon. "Do unto others as they wnuld do unto you, but do it first."—l am, etc., _ . 'W. BARTON. Featherston, June 3, -1920.