AT WHAT PRICE CAN MILK BE PRODUCED IN THIS DISTRICT?

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 90, 12 April 1883, Page 3

AT WHAT PRICE CAN MILK BE PRODUCED IN THIS DISTRICT?

£By J. H- Monbad.] It migiit be the right time for farmcrs tto come to * <conclasive answer to the ;above question. 'J here are two ways to work it; one by calculating the cost of aad the other by taking the value .realised by the present syslem— •each farmer making and selling butter ito the local storekeepers. I la the first case we have to consider j (a.) The value of cows, j <b.) The value of grazing them. j :(c.) The value of milking them. j (d.) The average yield. } ((a.) The average value of a good cow J I will put at £10. I (b.) Land fenced and laid down ia ' grass, and provided with a good yard and ! sheds, itc, at £10 per acre, allowing two and a half acres per cow. {c.) The value of milking is a difficult question. If wc employ grown up men (who are generally slower milkers than lads 11 to 16 years old) at is por hour, f ao_. afraid it would require Kpeci.-lly good cows to get a good balauce. Ti-e milking must be done by the family who, in milking their own cow«, provide themselves with work, which will not prerent contract work in the neighborhood, or better still, growing a few acres of hops. In this case I fancy thit £45 a year for milking !5 cows, or £3 per cow ought to be sufficient remuneration. At Edendale factory a man bailed the cows up and tied the legs, while boys and girls from the neighborhood were glad to milk tbem, receiving a ticket (representing ld) for each cow, and the man let the cows om again. This would be 2s Cd per day for 15 cows milked twice a day, or £2 Is 8d per cow for 250 days. (d.) The average yield can not faiily "be taken by the present state of affairs. If dairy farming is to be a success we must (1.) " Select" our own cows, that is, discard all co<vs not giving at least 350 gallons, so that an average of 350 gallons per cow may be obtained. (2.) Not try to grow beef and produce milk at the same time. (3.) Not let the calves suck. 1 (4.) Treat the cows gently. If. this is done, I maintain that it is npt at all difficult to obtain the above mentioned average, though it may take a few'Vears'to do so. My bes!, cows gave last season, only at the best, three and a

: half to four gallons per day, yet I can ) quote from my milk record — $94, 597, i 515, and 490 gallons in nliout eight and a I half months, and these cows were broken in from a mob, which, for generations back, ha«_ been a lowed to suckle their calves. i I could mention several cows which are ; reported to have given from 1,000 up to 1 1,800 gallons, but I have worked in a ! Danish dairy where the average was 700 i gallons. The accounts would then stand thus; — Expenses per cow — 10 per cent on value of cow ... £1 8 per cent on 2£ acres at £10 ... 2 Mdking 3 Total , ... £G If an average of 480 gallons is taken, the cost of production will be 3d per gallon. If we take the average price of dairymade butter to be 9d per lb (which is too high) and alb w the skim milk as payment for making and marketing the butter, we arrive at the same price per gallon, viz., 3d, as it certainly takes aR average of three gallons of milk to make one pound of butter.