Farming Column

Hokitika Guardian, 18 June 1932, Page 8

Farming Column

ABOUT THE BRITISH MARKET.

little change in prices. REVIEW OF DAIRY MARKETS. A firming oi' prices in bu:ter early last week was explained to some extent by a report that Germany was considering reducing tariff because of pressure from her owp iridu-trial people .and retaliation from Denmark against German manufacture. Th e average retail prices of butter are unchanged’,' New Zealand being at Is per ib and Danish at Is Id per l’o Danish quotations are. 102 sto 101 s •landed terms. The rate of merchants’ advances for the imonth of Jun e remained unchanged at Bjd per lb. There is no f.o.b. business offering. To-day's cheese quotations (together with the premium on exchange are equal to approximately 5Jd per lb, but naturally no f.o.b. business is. indicated. London advances remain unaltered at 4}d per lb. The stock position at May 27 continues ,to build up our hopes, the'"' being 73,343 crates in store at that 'late, as compared with 198,000 crates at the same date last year. The average retail pric e of Zealand cheese remains at 8d per lb With the adverse autumn conditions many factories have not manu-f‘r-t»red a great nuartitv ?ince early March. The recent market conditions will considerably reduce the •average ■cojns'ignm.ent returns which •-tood at- 60s to 61s just before «’•" recent decline. The latter prices v-ere L-'r-ely sufficient (to pay-out Is per lb butter-fat for cheese-making and it now looks as if the general pay-out will be about ll|d.

CANADIAN CHEESE. Advices show that Canadian cheese returns are low. A few sailes of new season’s full grass cheese have been ••••port-sT a!: 535, 54s c.i.f. The prices for old make are from 68s to 725, but it must be remembered that the-e cheeses have been earned for a considerable time. Only recently an advertisement appeared in an English tird journal offering Canadian chee: iSepkember, ls3o, niaKe. The P r asked was 90s. some 24s above tlie then market price ©lf Now Zw current arrivals, but it- is interest'to note that the price of current ‘C'’. ad inn cheese in September, 1° ranged from 78s c.i.f. to 85s. It

evident that the present vendor after nnvjng storage, shrinkage, taking nl' risks, is not on a very profitable line.

DAIRY FACTORIES CLOSE. With supplies tapering off, most dairy factories have now practically ceased operations for the winter period and things are quiet on the farms, many dairymen finding it necessary already to encroach on. Itheir winter reserves of feed. Th e weather has, up to the present, been very favourable, and cuttle are in good heart to meet t/he winter conditions. •With the coming of the frosts anc old .atmospheric conditions, pasture growth is now at a standstill and paddocks are beginning to look Bare.

BUTTER-FAT PRODUCTION. The result of the l investigation conducted by Mr E. J. Ftfwcett, farm economist to the Department of Agriculture, into th e question of butterfat production in 31ew Zealand is one of great .significance to tihe .farming community. The most important passage of his report is that in which he brings butter-fat production down to a per-acre basis. In this connection be show-s that every 0.4 per cent, increase in the test of a herd means an additional 10s per acre to the farmer. If /il 1 the several thousand herd.- whose productive capacity was examined had given 'an average mifk equal to that of the ihighest herds, or between 5.1 and 5.4 per cent,, the average pay-out for all It he farms would have bo&n over 17 per cent, amove that actually realised. Again, Mr (Fawcett shows that the average test for tho Dominion is calculated to be about 4.1 per cent., and that ';hi.s corresponds with a production of 971 bof butter-fat an acre. He then shows that if, by the use of higher testing cows, tJlie average test for the Dominion could be raised to 5.21 pci eeut., an increased output for the Dominion would be secured of over 35 per cent, of butter-fat. In other words, the wealth of New Zealand w>ll cl be increased to thi.s huge

amount. Mr Fawcett indicates further that the amount of. butter-fat production in the 1930-31 season was 322,000,OOQlb. Thus if 'the average percentage of New Zealand milk was raised 5.21 per cent. ("hicli could only be done by the use of high te. tiug, j.e., .Jersey cattle), the export value, of our dairy produce would be inreused by at least £5,000,000!

DANISH PRODUCTION In Denmark the average production of dairy cows has been doubled in the 36 years since the first cow-test-ing association was organised.

SOUTH AFRICA’S HOPES

Although, since the establishment of the Dairy Control Board, there has been a marked increase both in the quantity and the quality of the cheese and butter exported by this country, the Union is still far from being cf any importance among tile chief suppliers to the British Market for dairy produce, says a South Aiiican journal. There are many reasons for this backwardness on the part of our dairy farmers, and among them is the general failure to realise the magnitude of the market awaiting their produce in Britain, and the achievements of other Dominions in this respect.

Once the possibilities of the British market are appreciated, perhaps dairy fanners and in particular that multitude of smallholders who keep one or two inferior cows as a sideline, will be stimulated to overcome some of the age-old difficulties that beset the industry in this country. Many parts of the Union are favourable to dairying, and there is no reason why the achievements of the Australian dairy farmers should not be. duplicated here. Britain’s Huge Imports.

According to a report of the \ Imperial Economic Committee on Dairy Produce, the average annual import to the United Kingdom of butter and cheese amounted in 1927 •to the or Inssal sum of £64,000,000, of which slightly more than half was obtained from (.ount de,s outside tbe British Commonwealth, and only a fraction (one per cent.) from the Union. Seeing that our farmers possess some 2,000,000 so-call-ed dairy cows, our contribution is remarkably small, if not humiliating. New Zeainad, with 700,000 fewer cows, is able to export annually 11 million cwts of butter and 11 million cwts of cheese, and this in spite of being many times smaller than the Union and much farther from the British market. The position of our dairy industry is shown up still more unfavourably when it is'known that from 1924 to 1927 the Union imported annually 10,000 cwts of butter in excess of what she exported. By the aid of levies the Dairy Control Board has within the last two years greatly stimulated export, but when considered in relation to the market for which the Union is now catering, our exports of butter and cheese look woefully, small. Better Class of Cow Required.

As we have seen, for the Union to claim its share of the British market for dairy produce, 0ur'2,000,000 cows mufjt be replaced by a smaller number of high-class animals. But where is the money coming from to do this? Our farmers to-day arel.su impoverished and burdened with mortgages carrying a high rate of interest that they are more likely to sell the cows they have to meet pressing engagements than to replace them with others having a higher milk yield. And herein lies the crux of the problem now facing our agricultural industry. To develop an export trade the farmers must have money, and that is just what the great majority of them cannot get.

During 1927, two years before the onset of the present depression, the average e.i.f. price of Dominion butter in Britain was £8 Os 9d per cwt., or approximately Is fid per pound, which ,was lower than the retail price in Johannesburg. Since then oversea prices have steadily fallen, until today £5 10s is considered a fair price. This means that the Union farmer in order to compete on a profitable basis, must produce butter-fat for something under ninepence per pound, % and this most farmers maintain they cannot do. The trouble is that they expect a few inferior cows grazing over acres and acres of costly land to help meet the interest charges on mortgages that considerably exceed the present value of their land. Too much land is the curse of the South African farmer, and now, unfortunately, lie is unable to dispose of the surplus without losing it all.

Land at To-day’s Prices. Tt, would certainly seem that it will he the newcomer purchasing land at vp.rv much lower prices who will build up the large dairy industry to which the Union’s natural advantages entitle it A farmer buying land to-dav and only just sufficient for his requirements, can make dairying pay at present prices provided he starts with good ■cows and feeds them scientifically. But those who bought too much land at boom prices and have mortgaged it to the hi it are doomed to failure. Thus the capture of a fair share of the British market for dairy produce bv the Union must he a long and painful process unless, there is a volun-t«-y writing down of mortgages to a level more commensurate with the pie-senl-day value of land.

UNEVEN MILKINGS. Uneven interval' between milkmgs are perhaps the commonest cause of hnf ter-fat en<Tv vryirg to the extent of 2 to 2.5 per cent. The farmer should aim at a night interval of not more than 13 h-uv a-M the heavyyielding cows should be milked las', in the evening and first in the morning. Again, quality i« often u..-1 by inefficient milking. Mukmg should he clone quickly, quietly iMl '' thoroughly, the cow being tied with every consideration. Thorou

stripping is essential, as the bit < onlent of the last, milk so obtained « often as high as 7 or 8 Pj' 1 ' . Moreover, rough .stripping " 1 1 1( i„ loss of butter-fat and injury udder muscles.