IDEAL DAIRY UNIT

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 9, 26 January 1937, Page 11

IDEAL DAIRY UNIT

Factory of About 1500 Tons Output SIR F. FRAZER'S VIEW In an interview with a Gisborne reporter, Sir Francis Frazer, deputychairman of the Executiv© Commission of Agriculture, gave some intereeting observations on the results of modern economic studies into dairy factory org/anisation and management. ,Sir Francis stated that re&earch has revealed that the ideal dairy factory from the point of view of effieient management was one with an output of about 1500 tons. That generai observation, however, had to be takem in. the light of the epecial circumstances of any particular distriet. It applied in a distriet given over almost exclusively to dairying, such as the Waikato, but not in a distriet where mixed farming was the practice. The reason was the difficulty3 indeed the practical impossililit^, of getting cream to the factory fresh when it had to be brought lohg distances. Whxle the 1500 tons figure allowed economical factory management, in a distriet able to supply that quantity of butter-fat witbin a small radius, mounting cartage costs and the letarioration in cream brought long distances were increasingVy idverse fac tors in, a scattered dairying comraunity, which could not supply the full factory quota from fai'ms within a reasonable distance of the factory. In. an isolated distriet, therefore," or where there were natural dairying districts of a lesser production capacity than 5500 tons, situated isome miles from each cthei^ a smaller factory Would be the natuial and prdpef unit. The barijer of distance^ however, tended to be' broken down by better mad surfaceS and tl'anefort facilities. In the oarlier days of daii'yingj before home «pa> ation became the piactice, it was i.ecessary to cart whfiLe milk to a creamery or faetory, and smaller .units v ere theiL the rule rath.v than the exeepion. , 1. is, how j 4r> comparati r .iv .asy to cart cream, and this, together with savings in management and overhead expenses, has tended to make th© larger unit a souncler business proposition.