Farming Column

Hokitika Guardian, 19 August 1933, Page 8

Farming Column

SEARCH FOR NEW MARKETS EUROPE ALMOST CLOSED With the talk about quotas and the need' for finding fresh outlets for New Zealand produce, attention lately has been directed toward the Continental countries. The New Zealand Meat Producers Board hag taken an active interest in this phase of the question, and through its London manager (Mr R. S. Fprsykh) it has been investigating the possibility of the Dominion’s finding an entry into the Continent for its meat products. The results of that investigation indicate conclusively that there is little prospect of the Dominion’s ever finding a profitable market in that quarter. Practically every country is hedged about with tariffs and conditions that are prohibitive. New Zealand, therefore, will have to look to other parts of the world, says the Sun. / The only country that might be developed to some extend is Belgium but it is almost impossible for New Zealand to compete against the ex-, tremely low quotations for South American beef and mutton. Lamb is not imported into Belgium. The information obtained from each country is of a very interesting character, and for the sake of brevity it may bo summarised as follows: Belgium: Imports of frozen lamD, mutton, beef and pork are no longer free. A Royal decree last year subjected these imports to a quota amounting t ( > 9-10th of the imports m the year 1931. Licences, which must bo obtained from the Ministry of Agriculture are granted to firms established'in Belgium. The meat is subject to a duty of a little over fd a lb. and is loaded with a. further 5 per cent' sales tax on the duty paid. Germany: The duty free quota was abolished in July, 1930, and at the same time the reintroduction of old veterinary regulations dating back, to 1900, made the importation of lamb, mutton, beef and pork impossible. Import is permitted only in whole, carcases, and the various organs must remain attached in their natural state. These measures are designed to protect the German , agricultural industry. '

Norway: The importation of all classes of’ frozen meat is prohibited. The only exception tob-this castdron embargo. is that a certain amount oJ fresh meat is allowed ’ entry from parts of Sweden and Finland.

Sweden : The importation is permitted only on these conditions : That the country from which the meat is imported is-declared not to be infected with animal diseases, such as cattle plague, swine fever, foot and month' disease, etc. Various strict regulations appertaining to slaughtering and inspection in the country of origin are also enforced. Advice from the commercial counsellor to the British legation at Stockholm states that The Swedish Medical Board does not regard frozen- meat from New Zealand as satisfying its requirement. Its import, therefore, is pot permitted.

: Netherlands: There appears to bp no likelihood of the development of a i market for lamb and mutton, as this meat is not popular in the Netlier- ! Duds, which in fact produces more than- its own requirements. Pork, beef and veal are subject to quotas based on the previous year’s imports. No' New Zealand meat -of these classes has previously been imported. . France: Imports are governed by a quota fixed quarterly in. advaned. South America -is the chief supplier, the treaty rights admitting meat from this country at the minimum tariff New’ Zealand meat is subject to a prohibitive tariff. The lower price of Australian meat enables that country to land a certain amount. Italy: The veterinary requirements are extremely strict, and there is a high tariff. The conventional tariff now applies to practically all countries, but, in the case of those nations not subject to the favoured nation conditions, the goneral tariff, may be brought in without notice. Spain; There are no restrictions on' the import of meat, but all imports are subject to a duty of fd alb and must be certified healthy. Spain, however, - imports very little meat. Denmark: The importation of New Zealand lamb, mutton, beef and pork is prohibited under a decree of 1924, which is stated to be still effective.

GRASS HARROWING On fields on which the accumulated manure has not been thoroughly broken up and distributed the spring pasture growth is likely to he very uneven, because of the development of rank patches in the vicinity of where droppings were undisturbed for a considerable period. Such rank growth militates against good grazing management in the summer. On farms carrying sufficient store stock which it is not desired to fatten immediately such stock may be forced to eat out. the rank growth, but on farms supporting principally “wet” stock it is not at all easy to deal satisfactorily with the rank patches. On such farms it is particularly desirable to avoid them by timely and thorough grass harrowing. Hence harrowing now is.likely to be, specially serviceable. Young pastures, and particularly, those originating from the use of permanent pasture seed mixtures should be treated with special care during winter and early spring. Two faults to avoid are undergrazing and overgrazing. grazing is specially undesirable if

there.- is present, a considerable amount

of Italian ryegrass, which, if,allowed, will readily outgrow and weaken more persistent species in a ; permanent pasture.

“OPENNESS” IN CHEESE

MARKETING BOARD’S RESEARCH

The investigation into the problem of “openness” of texture in cheese,! ■which h s been in progress at the New j Zealand Dairy Research Institute -since April, 1931, .with a grant from *he Boa d, has been continued during, the year (the, report states).. Intensive investigation into this and other problems,! sUeh as discolouration in cheese, has shown the need, sA in many ocher fields of research, for organising the attack along both fundamental and applied lines.

Many'factors influence the defect of “openness,” which ha s three distinct types, two of which are generally associated with cTher defects in quality, and the third ; to i a limited extent, with cheese of finest quality. R has been shown that the trouble may be attributed to or aggravated by any or .fill of th 0 following conditions : Low grade milk, inactive Starters, faults pm manufacture, “he‘ aim for excessively high yields, undue hastening of, the . manufacturing process, excessively high curing room temperatures, and the sale of cheese before it is properly matured.- Fundamental studies on the bacteriological and ..chemical aspects of these problems, are being premised forward and. laboratory work is being co-or-dinated with the manufacture of cheese in the experimental dairy factory.; Close contact -is being maintained .with- the. related work on cheese ripening, processes- , being crirried out by Professor Sadler and Dr Blythe Eagles -fto the University of British Columbia. The fundamental work ■is proving of value not -only in the solution of specific problems,, but -as a .contribution to the wider, problem of efficient cheese manufacture m all producing countries, The, (investigation started in October, 1931,-, cmd considerable progress has been made, .one of the most important developments being : the devising of' a new medium, which lias riven 'Very promising results both - at the London Shoot rtf jß.ygiene and Tropica] Medicine »nd at the Nariouali Institute for Research in Baity mg at Reading. The errors of a number -of .steps in the plate-count-ing technique .■ have been measured, such as u -those concerning pipettes, diluents,[.method of making dilutions and duplicate counting of plates. Two .experiments made on a fairly large sc-.lft .-w-.it-It,- several . workers have shown; that .one of the most serious errors in the whole techniquo is due V the difficulty in counting colonies which are so small- as to he on the borderline , of resolution by i the naked eve., Counting identically the .same plates under the same conditions, different', workers, all highly experienced, ... obtained results not intrejuently.,differing by more , than 109 per ceWfc. The possible methods of diminish in-r this error have been. . discussed. Extremely interesting . , results have . been obtained by the analysis of data, submitted by the National Institute for Research in Dairying, concerning the-. information afforded by the use of the pie* 1 6 count, the col-i .count, ,and The -methylene blue reductase test in predicting the keeping quality of the milk. A second an ‘lysis is now in progress to determine the errors of the plate-count-ing technique when performed by the Ministry of Agriculture’s method. The preliminary, results indicate that, when duplicate analyses are 'made of the .game milk by two skilled workers at the '.same time the results obtained might differ by ae much as 60 per cent.

NEW CHEESE COMPETITION. Will Australia become a serious competitor of New Zealand in the cheese market? The following report from the Producers’ News points To more interest being taken by the island continent in the manufacture of cheese. The report states: “Imports of cheese into Great Britain from foreign countries are decreasing substantially, and this decrease i's being made lip by New Zealand. It .-would appear that; Australia could, with advantage to the industry, secure a much larger share of the trade.

“ The moral to be drawn from the above is that Australia. should develop her 'cheese industry and manufacture greater quantities. By so doing she would relieve the butter market. “According to the Minister for Commerce, who is responsible..for the in’orjnation contained in the opening paragraph, the exports of cheese from June 30, 1933, amounted to 5411 tons of which 5027 ton s went to the United Kingdom. The previous year’s shipments totalled 3245 tons, of which tne United Kingdom took 3050 tons. The value ,of our exports for. the financial year just concluded is approximately £325,000. ‘‘The Minister points out that it is interesting to note that New Zealand has developed a big trade in cheese with Great Britain, which for the calendar yoar 1932, amounted to 80,000 tons, with a value of nearly £5,090,000. For the first ten months of the present year the Dominion has increased her exports over the corresponding period of 1932 by j 12,000 tons, or nearly 15 per ccnt.j

-ch suggests that the manufacture of ese is not less profitable; than butto the. producer. As Australia’s ext of this commodity is, (by compari with New Zealand, almost infininial, there appears to be good l-ea-/ for greater attention being given the manufacture of cheese for ex-