The Value of Milk.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 160, 31 May 1909, Page 4

The Value of Milk.

The following shows the prices which the Danish farmer is receiving for his milk. The figures are taken from the annual report of the co-oper-ative dairies —butter factories —which number 554. Each dairy is reported on separately, and an average made at the end. The price which the farmer receives for his milk varies accordingly to the wholesale price of Danish butter in Great Britain, which is the Danish dairy farmer's greatest customer.

Danish. -23 Danish lb of milk equals I lb of butter at 12 l-2d lb. equals 4 l-2d per gallon of milk of 101b.

The farmer must also take back with him about 20 lbs skim milk from tbe 28 lbs sweet milk. This costs .Id per gallon, so that he receives 3 l-2d clear for his milk. The 12 l-2d per lb was tbe average price for the whole year. If British milk were bought on the same principle tbe result would be as follows: —

British.— 25, British lb of milk equals 1 lb of butter at Is Id per lb, wholesale, equals 5 I—ld per gallon of milk at lOd lb.

At present the British farmer receives an average of 6 l-2d all the year round by sending his milk into the towns. This shows that before he could make butter in his own and obviate the necessity of Britain importing so much foreign stuff, as some people advocate, the British farmer would have to accepts much lower price than he is at present getting. Besides there being •"•"'• <-o-op'-rativc-dairies, there are about as rnar.y private companies. Now. r.ot 1 ; or cent. of the farmers make b'.utc-r at horn.-. The Danish miikjs ; oe y r thar, the British. To rcmc-iy ';.:- ■■-. society called the Danish .}■ ;v y i.V. ■'■ Association has been start. :. The secretary is Mr Brith Pcterso::, near Hjorring. 'Li,is s-icety eia;!.,- thai il would be better ;-■:' the I>a:::-h farrr.-'r to introduce Jtiri-y biot'i i:.to the Native cattle. The following is the method adopted:- -A b-rsey bull is tut t" a Danish cow ar.d a ; iov .:■•..:, y bub pt;t to the lvulting Tiir.e wii! tt 11 whether or not this is a good plan. Those who advocate it state that as the mik is a bought according to per Csnt. of f-t in the- rnilk, i his"hor nrice

is obtained, and the cow costs less to feed. The society was first started in 1896, and twice every year a deputation visits Jersey and brings back a few hundred head of cows, bulls, and heifers, the prices paid being from £lO to £ls The first year they brought back 82 head, last year 850. This class of cattle, when brought to Denmark are not much affected bv abortion, a good deal by tuberculosis, but the worst feared disease is diarrhoea, so much so that on account of this the insurance companies have raised the premiums for Jersey cattle 50 per cent.