The Butter Industry.

Feilding Star, Volume XVI, Issue 294, 17 June 1895, Page 2

The Butter Industry.

As tbe butter industry is becoming of vital importance to this colon;, and particularly so to this district, it is necessary for farmers to adopt any plan by which their earnings may be increased. In the past the majority dairy farmers have neglected dairying in the winter— one of. the greatest mistakes they can make, although some of them may laugh at the sag. gestion. To successfully cairy on dairying in winter an abundance of fodder is necessary, and this is the stumbling block over which numbers fall. We are aware there are many difficulties in the way, but the position will have to be faced sooner or later, and no time has ever been more opportune than the present. By a chart and pamphlet, published on April 19th by Messrs W. Weddel and Co., of London, it is more than apparent that an absolute necessity exists for colonials to send their first shipments Home to be in time to catch the October, November, and December markets, if they wish to get the top price for their butter. To do this cows should be coming in from now onward, and this is where the difficulty is. Farmers have not the fodder^ and in a bush country like this hard labor is the only means by which they can gain that object. The first cost of removing stumps and roots from the ground is the gre test, but dairy farmers would recognise the advan. vantage if they only cleared one acre each summer. Messrs Weddel aud Go. advise making butter all the year zound, and in their pamphlet say :— (i There is one great and distinctive ct difference between the butter trade (•with the colonies and that; with « other countries. The latter 'ship « butter all the year round, while the « colonies send only during our winter v season. The . consequence is that « when colonial butter arrives at the << commencement of each season it has it to displace other varities before it < <can find a market for itself. In <( order to supplant those butters (( which are pernanently on the mar- «• ket and thus secure a share of the (< trade, sellers of colonial have to i' tempt buyers by offering at low « prices. It is a great disadvantage »« to the Australian butter trade that >( it is not carried on all the year << round. People become accustomed " to a particular flavour by long " usage, consequently those butters " that are on the market permanently, " secure a firm position in public '' favour, while those which appear "only during a certain season have " great difficulty in obtaining a full "recognition of their good qualities "except by some sacrifice in price. "The increase in the production of " butter, especially in Victoria, is " rapidly forcing into prominence the " question of shipping all the, year " round. If the past rate of increase " continues for another year or two " it seems impossible for the colony "to go on satisfactorily with only a " season trade. The number^ of cows " necessary to produce say 20,000 v tons annually will give more butter << during the present non-shipping « season that can be consumed lccalljr, « and the surplus must therefore be For a time, shipping << all-the year-round may be avoided « by storing in the colony or IB Lon- « don, but that can be only a temj^r- « ary remedy and the question will <( have to be faced of supplying British <( markets continuously in the same « way as other countries do. It most << probably would happen that during <( the months of May and June butter "would be sold at a less, but the « profits of the other ten months " ought to bring out the year's trading <<onthe right side. If colonial but-. " ter were continually on our markets (< it would on average; realize higher " prices thaa now, for it is absolutely " necessary, in order to retain the ««best buyerSi that the supply be " continuous. The present system in- " volves all the difficulties of re-open- " ing account! every season, as well " as creating a disturbing element in " the routine of the trade. Every <( autumn, buyers have to abandon or " diminish their Tegular sources of "supply before they are able to pur- " chase the Australian commodity, " and it is easy to understand how " this hinders tbe development of the " colonial butter business."