Canadian Dairy Trade.

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 186, 9 February 1897, Page 2

Canadian Dairy Trade.

The cost of producing batter in Canada has of late been the subject of a controversy in the American press, started by the importance which the Canadian export of batter to England is assuming under the stimulating influence of Government and provincial bonuses. One of the estimates, accepted as reliable, is based upon the computa* tion that each cow gives 500 gallons of milk per annum, that each pound of butter is produced from an average of 251 bof milk, that the cow milks for nine months, and that it is proper to deduct the value of the skim milk and butter milk, debiting the butter with the remaining cost. It is unnecessary to deal with tb6 very considerable calculations which are made estimating the cost of producing butter on grass, of producing it in the autumn and in the winter, and of feeding the cow when she is dry. The coit of production during the year is placed as follows :— - The two months - May to July— is placed at 18s 63, the three months— July to Octoberis placed at £1 17s 2d, and the 4 months— October, December, April, and May— at i 8 Us 9d, giving a total of £t 8s sd, showing a cost for each pound of butter of slightly more than l\. The cost of the food of each cow is placed at £& 5s Bd, ths cost of each 1001 bof milk for food alone at 6£d, whereas in the experiment at the agricultural station of Minnesota the cost of production of each pound of butter was placed at s£d ; but in this case it was assumed that each cow produced 640 gallons of milk, and that each 1001 bof milk cost 2s 7d. The cow is assumed to be fresh on April 1. In the colonies milk cannot be — at any rate, is not — produced at any such price, while the cost of freight is much less to the Canadian producer. Indeed, it is doubtful if he has not cheaper freight than the Dane, who is much nearer England. The butter from the factories of Canada is now carried in a refrigerator car, from which it is very rapidly removed to a refrigerator chamber on the steamer, and in this way it arrives in the English market almost as fresh as butter from any of the more distant English countries.