DAIRY INDUSTRY

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 169, 4 August 1937, Page 14

DAIRY INDUSTRY

-Presa Auooi&tioQ.)

Farmers Derive No .Benefit from State Action .

(By Telegrftph-

HAMILTON, Last Ndght. The fear that Dominion dairy farmers would derive no benefits from their efforts in bringing about a greater degree of efficiency in their anduetry if the Government carried out what appeared to be its ideas relative to the fixing of the guaranteed price for the coming year, was expressed by Mr. R. A. Candy, chairmaa of directore of the New Zealand Co-operative Herd-testing Association, in his address to the annual meeting of the association. "We have now finished the first season of the operation of tho guaranteed pidce," said Mr. Candy. ''In rny report 'last year I Btated that in spite of any arguments for or against such a prqposal, it would, if carried out on the lines. enunciated by the Government, definitely mean that all increased butter-fat production obtained as the result of the judicious use of herdtesting would be accomplished by an increased cash return. To-day, I am doubtful if such will be the case. " Individually, we will still get some benefit, but collectively, if the Government carriea out what appear to be its ideas relative to the fixing of the guaranteed price for the coming year, the dairy farmers of this country wiB get no benefit from the wonderful improvement in efficiency that they have brought about in the last 10 or 15 years," said Mr. Candy. "During this period farmers improved their average production per cow by over 40 per cent., and their labour efficiency, measured by the production of butter-fat per unit of labour, was estimated by the Dairy Commission to have improved by from 75 to 100 pej cent. ' ' I am satisfied that the idea of staTtIng the dairy industry off with a clean slate, with a completely new idea of the costs involved, was only entered into because certain people thought by that means they could bring out a guaranteed price that would be lower than would be the case if they had taken this past eeason's price and added to that the increased costs that the industry had had to bear at3 the result of Government legislation. "