GRADING OF CREAM.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4487, 3 November 1922, Page 3

GRADING OF CREAM.

DISCUSSER BY SUPPLIERS’ COMMITTEES'The vital question of cream grading occupied some little time at the first quarterly conference pf suppliers’ committees of the N.Z. Co-op-erative Dairy Company, held in Paeroa yesterday. The question was first raised by Mr Ediis (Paeroa), who stated that .he had had quite a lot. of trouble with bis cream.. He was desirous of giving the very best and was prepared to'go to any trouble to secure that end. He had striven all he knew to get superfine grade, but in spite of everything *he could do or the inspectors could suggest he had not succeeded until just recently. One pipe in the machine had been found to be a little dirty, but in spite of this being rectified the trouble still continued. He was told that the. trouble was that the cream had a “feedy” flavour, His place was full of clover, and he wondered if topdressing had anything to do with it, as he had top-dressed liberally this year. Mr Shallue (Mangaiti) mentioned that last, year he had an experience that was interesting. His cream had been falling below superfine, and extra trouble was taken to discover the cause. Under the most .scrupulous tests he himself found that a superfine cream in the shed did develop a flavour by the time it reached the •factory. He was satisfied that exposure to the sun would cause de-

terioration.. Mr Cassrels (Paeroa) mentioned that he had found new rubber-ware z taint cream. Mr Johnson Smith stated that he had been informed by a dairy expert that there* was nothing worse than green oats for tainting cream. An incident that had occurred recently confirmed this statement, when he found a neighbour who liadjbeen feeding his' herd on green oats' had had . his cream described as "feedy.” Another Committeeman stated that : the cream grader was a good thing for all the "bites” of the country. He had known ■ one case, where a man' whom he knew complained of his cream being graded low. On one occasion'he had the chance to taste - this man’s cream r and there was no doubt that it was "off” superfine quality—very much! so . , Mr Grace (Waitekauri) stated that the great majority bf suppliers were anxious to supply superfine if they could do so, and would be grateful for any further information enabling themi .to do this'. After further discussion Mr Garry manager of the Paeroa butter factory, made a very interesting speech.- Suppliers, he said, were most anxious as to what was the cause of their not getting'superfine when that did happen. He Was frank enough to admit that in a gijeat many cases neither be nor any other -man could definitely state what was the’ cause. AU flhat he could say was that the cream was such 1 and such a grade, and he could hot always assign a cause for it. Be mentioned One case where ,a man whom he regarded as the best man in the cream-grading line in New Zealand had stated that one man's cream was flavoured by green oats, and the man had come after, him with a gun because his cows had not been near an oat. This showed the impossibility of assigning cause. All that could be said in such 'cases was that there was a feed flavour. Under present conditions a man was graded first grade or superfine, but did not know by how much he was in each grade; He thought it would be a good idea to revert to a practice that was formerly in vogue in the North of Auckland, namely, to grade cream by points. For instance, a man grading 91 would be just in superfine, but at 94 h'e would be well over the mark. If each man dropped a point in grade the first, would go out of superfine but the other would not. Tf points were awarded right through the men would know just where they were, and if they were dropping in grade could.take care and try to rectify the positio'n. The superfine cream at the factory was all made up in one vat and the first grade in another vat. said Mr Garry, and were kept quite distinct. A very small amount of second grade was coming to hand this season, but the quality of .the cream right through this season was not as good as it was last year. What the cause of this was he could not say, but the fact was that last year they had no trouble in turning out practically all superfine for September, whereas this year they bad difficulty in reaching that standard. The inspectors who went round were open to admit that there were things which puzzled them, Some men whose conditions were not of the best still turned out a cream which on the stage did grade superfine, and that was .all they could go on. Other men whose conditions were about perfect did not turn put a superfine cream, but apparently through no fault of theirs. There .was just something in the feed not right. Too much lotus major was not good, but lotus angustissimus was very much worse. The men at the factorw, said Mr Garry, were all keen to give superfine wherever it could possibly be given, and suppliers would be surprised if they knew how much time was taken up in "inquests,” as they were called. Sometimes at the end of the day there would be a dozen cans to be decided about, and the officials concerned would go into these cases very carefully and give the supplier the benefit of the doubt jn every case possible. The company wanted to help suppliers in everyway and if any supplier wanted to know how the grading, weighing, or testing was done he would be only too glad if he would visit tlhe factory and he would show him round, He would like to mention that the factory did not pretend to send out cans properly Washed. They were steamed, but. every farmer should again wash them. Some suppliers apparently did not again wash them, as he had found the precious day’s weight ticket in the day’s cream, (Laughter.) if any

supplier would like his weights checked he would be glad if he would put a docket in the can showing his own weight, and the factory would then check his weights and let him know what the discrepancy was. Mr Garry was thanked for his remarks, which proved of much''interest to sunpliers. Several men from outsicle districts mentioned that they had been 'at the factory that, morning and had seen ;the procedure and were satisfied that everything possible was being done in the supplier/ Interests. They had themselves graded several cans of cream, and found no difficulty in grading superfine and first grade, as well as second. Mr Geo. Buchanan, director .of the N.Z Co-operative Dairy Company, presided over the conference, which was attended by over 40 farmers, who greatly appreciated till® information supplied to them in the course of an all round discussion.