DAIRY PRODUCTION

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20102, 23 November 1939, Page 2

DAIRY PRODUCTION

DECREASE . IN MANAWATU

15 PER CENT . DOWN The largest dairy company operating in the Manawatu district, the Cheltenham Co-operative Dairy Company, acknowledges a serious decline in butter output. Production for the first four months of the current season shows a decrease compared with the quantity manufactured during the same period last year of 15.5 per cent, or 93 tons.

Factors contributing to this state of affairs are the poor Spring experienced generally and the falling off in the number of suppliers. These factors share on a fifty-fifty basis the cause of the decline. The spring weather has been acknowledged as adverse for dairying and a fall in output was anticipated. As to the falling off in the number of suppliers, it should be explained that this was not due to suppliers changing over to other companies, but was definitely traceable to suppliers going out of dairying. This change-over from dairying to sheep has been very marked, and in a number of instances where mixed farming had been carried on dairying has been dropped. One of the reasons assigned-for 'this is stated to be the absence of labour.

Other dairy companies operating in the neighbourhood of Palmerston North report a similar state of affairs, the drop in production being given at from 10 to 15 per cent. Executives of these other factories blame not only the poorer season but also the decision of farmers to milk fewer cows because of the labour problem rather than pay high wages. Even if labour was procurable many had determined to carry oti by themselves with a smaller herd and what assistance wives and children could give. ‘Falls of rain of the last day or two have been very welcome and may have the effect of stopping the drift temporarily, but dairy factory managers consider that it has come too late, and that there will be no flush this season.