THE DAIRYING INDUSTRY

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4532, 26 February 1923, Page 1

THE DAIRYING INDUSTRY

SOME FAVOURABLE COMPARISONS Dairy farmers concerned about the dairy industry in New Zealand may take heart of grace from information given by Mr J. A. Ruddick, Dairy Commissioner for Canada, .who is at present, in this country. He it>- accompanied by Mr W. A. Wilson, General Manager of the SackatChewan Cooperative Creameries, Ltd., and while these visitors were in Hamilton they were conducted over a number .pf factories of the N.Z. Co-operative Dairy Co., Ltd , and given full information as to .the company’s growth and activities. Mr Ruddick, in the course of a brief interview, expressed his astonishment at the wonderful growth of the industry since he was 1 in this country as head of the Dairy Division in the years 1899 to 1900. In the 23 years that have elapsed since that time the New Zealand dairy industry has become completely changed, particularly in the Waikato. The growth in this area absolutely astonished Mr Ruddick. In 1900 the output of butter was approximately 1000 tons, but tod.aj’ the N.Z. Co-operative Dairy Company, Ltd, will produce this, year nearly 22,000 tons of buteer. great ADVANCEMENT. Comparing ithe position of the industry in Canada with New Zealand, Mr Ruddick said that New Zealand had advanced far beyond Canada in the development of big factories. The largest individual butter factory in Canada would have an annual Output of about 500' tons, so that they had nothing to compare with the big centralised factories of the New Zealand Coi operative Dairy Co., Ltd., with their annual outputs of 2000 to 2500 tons. In Can.ada the dairying industry at present was largely a side-line to general farming, with the exception of certain special districts whose conditions favoured the development of the industry. They had nothing to compare with the intensive dairying activity of the Waikato. Mr Wilson, who is manager of the biggest co-operative concern in Canada, stated that the recent slump had put dairying more in the limelight, as a number of wheat farmers were putting on from 10 to a dozen cows for the sake of the ready return given for milk. His company, had (16,000 suppliers, but tjhe total manufacture was only 2000 tons, this,fact indicating the difference between the economic development of that country and New Zealand. GRADING. Grading had been in force for ten or twelve years past, and he, was’ fully satisfied that it was the keynote to success in dairying. From April 1 of this year the Federal Government. was establishing grading of all export; produce stent out of Canada, and it was considered that this policy would effect a vast improvement In the standard of the country’s produce. If ,the Western Provinces took up dairying in earnest the possibilities for expansion were enormous, but on the whole the conditions for dairying were not nearly so favourable as those for New Zealand. THE STANDARD ATTAINED. After his inspection of half a dozen of the -company’s factories Mr Ruddick expressed his surpeiste at the standard of development attained, and particularly wished to compliment the factory managers upon the, high technical skill attained by them. The factories he had seten were very well designed, and what impressed him most was the fact that, they had been built big to start with, and provide for an expansion instead of, like most big factories', being built on piecemeal from time, to time. This was a policy that struck him as being a very economical proposition, and one in which he was highly in favour. The churns used here were approximately three times the size of the churns used in Canada and t,he UnitedStates, and to that extent the industry here was more intensified and *n a higher state of development than in the Ordinary districts throughout those countries. Mr Ruddick and Mr Wilson are making a flying trip through • New Zealand, and have a schedule which will carry them to every important dairying district prior to their departure to Australia on March 5. After fou -weeks in Australia they are returning to Canada.