Farming Column

Hokitika Guardian, 13 August 1932, Page 8

Farming Column

“ON THE COW’S BACK.”

AUSTRALIA AND DAIRYING.

“The claim can be reasonably made that in this period of financial and industrial crisis Australia is being carried! on the cow’s back,” said the director of dairying (Mr L„ T. Maclnnes) in an address at the annual conference of the New South Wales Butter and Cheese Factories’ Managers’ and Secretaries’ Association, held recently. “Dairying is the premier industry of all., primary and secondary industries, in Australia in relation to value of total production f numbers of persons, engaged or dependent on it, and capital invested. Dairying is finding employment and sustenance for many additional thousands. It is considered that the prospects of further advances in this industry compare most favourably with those in any other industry in Australia.” , Mr Maclnnes referred to £he value of the butter exported from Australia, New South Wales export values a ton, owing to better qualify, he said, would be slightly higher than those of other States, hut generally AiistraHan values would be similar to those at Sydney, Of the total production, butter represented 80 per cent. He submitted the following table, the amounts for which were computed on this basis, to show the increasing value of the industry to Australia: Approximate Value Tons £ } . . 1928- .... 127,000 21,065,00 u 1929- ... 130.000 20.632,000 1930- ’ ... 159,000 18,772,000 1931- ... 176,000 21,116,000

T&e increase in production from 192.9 to 1932 amounted to 49,000 tons The decrease in the averages of export and home prices was £46 a ton But, owing to the increase in production the value increased by £51,000 Comparing 1930-31 with 1931-32, it was estimated that the increase in prodiction Had been more than 17,000 tons, and the value was greater than that'for 1931-32 by £2,344,000.

REDUCING FARM COSTS.

HEAVY BURDEN OF MORTGAGES.

Sir, Lennon Raws, who recently returned to Australia after a business visit- to New Zealand, said the Dominion had not yet suffered to severely as Australia from the reduction of capital expenditure, which was due to the cessation of overseas borrowing. The; New Zealand Year Book devoted a chapter to mortgages. This showed that the value of land and improvements increased between 1878 and 1902 by about 50 per cent. In the suceeding 18 years the totah valuation more than doubled, and from 1920 to 1927 unimproved values increased, by more than £50,000,000, and ihe capital values by £148,000,000.. . • Mortgages in 1929 relating to farm lands represented £115,009,000, or 75 ner cent, of the unimproved value. The mortgages on areas from pne to 15 areas from 40 to 50 acres averaged £23' an acre.

In 1930 interest on mortgages represented' one-third of farm expendiure and no doubt there had since been a large increase. One who believed that the greatest need in Australia and New Zealand was for the reestablishment of equilibrium between internal and external, prices, and between costs and prices, found the question of interest on farm mortgages a tremendous difficulty. It was apparently recognised that some reduction of land values was inevitable. This did not necessarily mean that the mortgagee should bear the'loss, but it was obvious that thb mortgagor should .regain some equity in his land. A reduction in values had, of course, been effected in Australia by means of the lowering of the rate of interest. He had expressed the opinion in New Zealand, however, that Australian experience in varying nominal wages according to 'a cost of living index figure suggested that some similar relationship between mortgage interest and farm prices might be advantageous. Reduction in costs was as important in restoring equilibrium as a rise in prices.

&OUTH AFRICAN BOUNTIES

The experience in Great Britain of the milk producer having to sell cheap and the consumer to buy dear, is evidently not uncommon in South Africa, where the Dairy Industry Control Hoard is now taking steps to prevent the exploitaticm of fanners by unscrupulous buyers of cieam aud milk. These steps involve the penalising of those who buy cream and milk below rr..f P i n fixed minima, and the penalty will take the form of a reduction in the export bounties paid to manufacturers..

The Control Board has decided that 1,000,0001 b of butter shall be exported during the season ending September 39 next. The export bounties are: 7d, 6d and 4d respectively on first, second and third grade butter, and the I board’s ruling is that from May 1 these sums shall be reduced at the rate of 3d per lb or such proportional factions of a penny, for every penny as the price paid by the creameries concerned for butter fat is below the economic price laid flown from time to time by the provided that the bounty shall not be reduced below 3d, 2d and Id per lb. respectively. Front May 23 the majority of the Union creameries increased their nri"p I f-r hotter fat t" Is. lid and 9d per [lb respectively for first, second and I third gradps• but from May 1 the

board has decided that on all cheese exported these sums will be reduced by |d for every penny paid by a manufacturer below the price laid down by the board, provided the export bounty be not reduced below 2d, l|d and Id per lb respectively. BHtain is practically the only overseas market for Union butter and cheese, and whether she will continue, after the Ottawa Conference, t 0 alfow these heavy jsubsidised commodities a free entry while British imports to the Union are being heavily penalised, remains to be seen. Arrangements are being made for the holding of an AllBritish Exhibition at Copenhagen in September, with the Prince of Wales and the Crown Prince of Denmark as joint patrons, when the Danes will be urged to purchase more British manufactures in return for the huge quantities of Danish butter and bacon sold to British housewives.

EXCHANGE FOR BUTTER

DANISH SUGGESTION MADE

Negotiations by the Danes . with France to take brandy in exchange for butter are bnentirtned in rt report from the Anglo-Continental Produce Company, Ltd., recently in Australia.. Writing under date May 25. the company states that the English butter; market continued to sag. There was hot much butter in Europe, but owing to the economic position the public could n«.t buy as much as it desired. The Germans and ithe Belgians would like to take more butter, hut owing to tee quota currency. restrictions it .was im-! possible for them to do so, Denmar 1 - was endeavouring to induce Germany to increase, the Danish quota, from 5.000 tons to about"2o,ooo tons, and also was seeking to get the Belgian qjnota raised, as Belgium was fakirm drily nne-quarfor to one-third of the quantity she took last year.”

OTTAWA AND ARGENTINA.

•Tq the course of a review of the British Government’s proposals for agriculture, Sir John Gilmour, Minister of culture could feel to-day that it was; placed distinctly and emphatically upon 'the same status' and with v the same possibilities as the other great industries of the country; but, he added, those who had to rely on their own resources iri agriculture ought to be a littlte chary of. expecting too much from the. politicians They must, above, all, adept themselfes’ to modern conditions and study the markets they desired to serve. The, risk of the quota policy was whether they forced up prices too rapidly. No, subject, was ruled out at Ottawa, aqij he thought it was right that they should , deal first with problems as they affected their own relations, but; afterwards they must deal with sveh countrjes as .Argentina, and there they came up against the great problem of the meat trade. On the question of British beef for the Army and Navy they could not shut their eyes to the .fact that it. cost money, and anything that cost money had to be looked at with , great consideration. They. |had considered: it, hut for the time had to turn it down. '

“SO MUCH TALK.”

EXPORT OF WHEY BUTTER

Assertions made ip Auckland that whey butter exported to Great Britain; was having a damaging effect on the Dominion’s reputation, on ( the Home market were denied by a leading dairyproduce exporter recently, who said that it was merely so much talk, At a recent meeting of an Auckland dairy company, a motion was passed urging the Government to prohibit the export of second-class and whey butter, on the grounds that it was detrimental to the Dominion’s good name. Warnings have been sounded in other quarters. Instances, it is reported, have been known where whey butter has' been sold at Home as New Zealand first-grade, and it has been advocated that all whey butter should be retained in New Zealand “I know that some of the factories have been doing their best to have the export of whey butter stopped,” said the exporter, “and have it sold .on the domestic market. This talk about retailers putting it on the piarket .af Home as first-grade looks fo me to be just a little propaganda. We have heard nothing of it, and if it were done to any extent the Dairy Produce Board would soon step in and take a hand. ,

“As, a matter of fact, there is very little difference between first-grade-whey butter, and the. first-grade creamery butter when it is fresh. Its fault is that it does not keep as well. At Home, though, it is favoured for pastry making. In fact, it is considered to be better for this than ordinary second-grade butter. “I do not think,” he added, “that there is enough in all these complaints to warrant its export being prohibited.”

Whey butter is made from the whey left over after cheese-making. The ordinary processes are used, but the quantity of butter obtained is small, as the whey, when drained off, contains ony a small proportion of fat.