Co operative Dairying.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 183, 10 August 1901, Page 3

Co operative Dairying.

REPLY TO MB T. McGREGOK,

(To the Editor of the Times.) Sik, —Mr McGregor, the proprietor of the : Kua Ora Butter Factory, has put certain questions to rue through your columns i upon the above subject, which I have not been able to reply to earlier for want of time, but I will do so now. In the first place Mr McGregor says that I have been trying to show that the factory proprietors are robbing the farmers. This, Mr Editor, is not so. What I have been trying to show is that the farmers are robbing themselves and their children, at the same time doing the district as a whole an injury, by accepting 7d per lb for their butter fat. I do not blame the proprietors of the local factories. They state their terms, and the farmers quietly accept. I blame the farmers themselves for not insisting upon better terms, or cooperating, so as to secure to themselves the full benefit of their labour. Competition is the life of trade, and I do not consider the farmers of the district have taken proper steps to see that there is real competition in the local dairy industry. Mr McGregor says that “ my facts and figures show that there is a clear profit of X'4 8s 4d for every cow, and for his (Mr McGregor’s) part he cannot see where it comes in.” No more can I, for if Mr McGregor would carefully look at my figures again he will see that he has not properly read them, and when he can find time to read them carefully he will j see that they show that the factory owners make a gross profit of .£4 »is 4d from each cow, and after deducting all charges, expenses, and returns it leaves a clean net profit of £3 Is lOd per cow to the factory owner

Mr McGregor also wants to know how the animal called a cow produces at least 2.10 lbs of butter fat in a season of ten months. Well, this is done by milking such an animal after being fed in a reasonable way, and taking the milk to Mr McGregor’s factory and letting him do the rest. But let us work it out in detail. A fair cow, when she is newly calved, should give four gallons of milk per day (or about three-quarters full of an ordinay bucket at a milking) for four months; then three gallons for the next three months; then two gallons for the next two months, and one gallon for the last month, which totals 900 gallons ; and as there are 10.1-lbs of milk in a gallon, this will give you 94501bs of milk, and as four per cent is a low average for butter fat for the season from lOOlbs of milk, this would give an average of i>7Blbs of butter fat per cow for ten months, instead of 250ibs as stated by me. So it will be seen that 2501bs is a very low estimate indeed, and instead of over-estimating it I have rather under-estimated. Again, this quantity of milk averages a fraction over three gallons per day, which is only about half of an ordinary sized bucket night and morning, so if Mr McGregor is doing any milking himself, and has any cows that give less than half a bucket at a milking he should either kick them out of the milk yard or stuff a hit of good tucker into them, for a cow that gives less than that is either a worthless milker or she is badly fed.

Then Mr McGregor wants me to tell him of a co-operative factory in New Zealand where they make on an average throughout the season llOlbs of butter to every lOOlbs of butter fat. Well the Inglewood Co-operative Dairy Factory is reported to have produced 1121bs of butter per lOOlbs of butter fat, and several others averaging from 108 to 112 have been given me, so I do not think Mr McGregor can say the llOlbs is an excessive average.

Mr McGregor asks mo another silly question about what Bank or finance company lends money and only charges interest when the money is fetching in a profit, as I quote interest for 10 months only. This question, like nearly all Mr McGregor’s questions, arc idle questions, and are made I fear for no good object, but for the want of something hotter to ask. Ido not think there is any Bank or company who are such asses as to lend money under such conditions, nor do I think the owners of any factory, would ho asses enough to let their factory remain idle for the remaining two months in the year if they could possibly help it, and would keep it going to as to earn something the same way as Mr McGregor has kept his going for the whole 12 months, and also in the same way the Matawherofactory has been kept going. I merely took the period of 10 months for my calculations because 10 months is considered a full period a cow should be milked, as she should havo a rest of two months before coming into profit again.

Then Mr McGregor wants mo to tell him how all the butter is to be sold locally for lOd per lb. Well tho best answer I can give to this is that if you want to buy Mr McGregor's butter locally he will not sell it under lO.id per lb, so apparently Mr McGregor puts a higher value upon the worth of the butter locally than I have done. I do not wish it thought that I contend the butter' can be in fact all sold locally. It cannot, but its local worth is fixed by the outside markets, find so as not to complicate my figures with the additional charges in sending the butter Home for sale in the English market, I took what Mr McGregor evidently thinks Id below its real worth locally and based ujv calculations on that. The charges I understand for shipping for sale upon the English market average about 13s per cwt, or a little less than I[d per lb ; this includes charges from port of shipment to final disposal of butter, including; commission and local charges from factory door, so if ljd is added to the local value of lOd, the butter would require to realise 11»d per lb in England to net lOd per lb here.

The estimate of lOd per lb is again borne out by the address of Mr Scott, which was published in tho Weekly Press, and which you were asked by “Supplier” to republish. From this address it will be. seen that the output of qertqin dairy companies about Dunedin realised 101-d to Is 2id per lb wholesale.

Mr McGregor then asked mo to name a factory that has cleared its shareholders £ll 9s 2d per cow on an average. As I made no such quotation I cannot see for what purpose this question has been asked. Apparently Mr McGregor has gbt himself a bit mixed up over my figures and has mistaken the gross worth of butter from 2;jolbs of butter fat, which I said was worth £ll 9s 2d, from which pf course t\ll disbursements and expenses have to be deducted, as shown by my figures. Mr McGregor concludes by saying he lias boon buying and selling and shipping dairy produce for the last 20 years, and then he goes on to say, “ Mr Lysnar says tho cows should do certain things and I say they do not do them.” Well I venture to think that if Mr McGregor had boon milking the animal called tho cow for the last 20 years instead of milking the farmers, he - might not say the cows cannot do the things I have said they should, nor would lie have troubled to ask me so many idle questions. —I am, etc.. W. Douglas Lysnar.