RANGINUI.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 538, 1 February 1913, Page 6

RANGINUI.

Fresh evidence of the growth of this district was given last Thusday, when Mr Frost, representing the Waikato Co-operative Dairy Company, Ltd., addressed a representative meeting of the settlers upon the subject of home separation of cream. A number of the dairy farmers from Kio Kio also attended and were much impressed with the advantages of the new system. Mr Frost pointed out that some three years ago certain creamery suppliers had asked a leading Auckland dairy company to allow them to skim at home and so save the necessity of carting milk over bad roads. Their request was refused and consequently Mr Wm, Goodtellow and others formed a company which set itself the task of handling only home skimmed cream. This was the nucleus of the concern the speaker was now representing. In its first season the factory handled 150 tons of butter. The nuxt season the output was 375 tons. The third year saw an increase to 710 tons and the present season's output would probably exceed 1000 tons. This rapid expansion was proof of the value of the system, and it was noticable that the biggest increase in any one district had occurred where there were throe creameries close together and had caused the closing of one of them. Of the 528 suppliers to the company about 350 had withdrawn from various creameries.

The advantages of home separation were obvious. In the first place instead of carting daily the whole milk to the creamery and the skiin milk home again, cream could be taken with less labour three times a week in the summer and once a week in the winter, a n d farmers could appreciate the value of the time saved, to -)ay nothing of the reduced wear and tear of horses* and waggons. Then there was the advantage of having warm sweet milk for the calves and his hearers would be able to access the values of that article and the im provement in the quality of the stock raised part of which would in all probability be required later on for the herd. Perhaps the greatest advantage of all was that the man with the healthy herd did not risk introducing disease among his calves and Ipigs, whereas under the creamery system that risk was inevitable.

It had been said that home separation must lower the quality of New Zealand butter. This had been quite true in the days when cream had been handled without regard to the condition in which it was received, but the Waikato Co-operative factory was worked under the latest scientific methods and provided there was no unclean flavour in the cream the resulting butter would hold its own with that from any factory. As a matter of fact cream skimmed im mediately after milking was of a better quality than that which had stood for some hours before reaching the separator. If proof were needed that tha factory's output waß of first class quality it was necessary only to look at last season's grading returns wjbich ran from 90 to 92J points. One creamery concern had been so persistent in its efforts to discredit home separation on this score of quality that the Waikato Co-operative Dairy Company invited them to publish their grading returns, and had offered that if the creamery butter beat theirs by more than half a point they would gve £SO to either the Auckland or Hamilton hospital, provided th<? other firm would do the same, if the home separated article proved the better. This challenge had not been accepted.

The business had developed so rapidly that a new factory was now necessary, and one was being built at Frankton capable of handling 2000 tons annually. In addition a factory had been acquired at Mercer. In order to be certain of turning out the best possible article the company had secured the services of Mr A. G. Shirley, late of the Government Dairying Division. It was Mr Shirley who had been instrumental in raising the output of the Northern home separation factories for last season to the 94 grade and he was recognised as being at the head of his profession. The company was being worked on a system similar to that employed by the two largest butter factories in the world —Nebaska and Byron Bay. Both these concerns handled entirely home skimmed cream, and the former was producing 12000 tons of butter annual ly and drew its supply from a radius of 1000 miles, The main idea was to centralise and so cut down the cost of production. In New Zealand it cost £6OO to erect a creamery and £3BO a year to run it. With home separation the cost was avoided. Suppliers had no guarantee to sign. They could commence sending cream when they liked and cease when they liked. To 1 secure the annual bonus they need take up no shares; shareholders drew no larger bonus than did other suppliers and the shares simply paid interest and carried a vote for direc torate, the holding of fifty shares entitling a person to stand for election aa a director. The price paid was nett delivered at the railway, the Company paying freight. In favourable localities suppliers were encouraged to arrange a cartage contract, which cost them Id to id per pound butterfat. The price paid to suppliers was of course determined by the rise and fall of the London market. The company had not adopted the policy of selling an open consignment as this had shown itself to be safest. Had this policy been adopted l&st season the price paid would have been at least Id per pound more. All nett profits were divided among the suppliers in proportion to the amount of butterfat supplied. There was one big attraction the Company offered and that was that in the winter a man milking two or three cows could send away his surplus cream once a week and get the benefit of the high prices ruling on the market. As far as the working of the factory

Was concerned no system was proof against error, but suppliers could be assured of prompt attention to complaints and immediate redress if any errors were proved. The company would assit suppliers financially if desired, and was now offering facilities for the purchases of requirement at low rates. A cow testing division was in operation and over 200 suppliers were availing themselves of its services. The charge made was 2d a test. In conclusion Mr Frost asked thoße who intended to Etart dairying to give this pioneer Company a trial, and he was confident they would be satisfied with the result. He would warn them, however, that unlesss they fed their cowa well *.heir returns would not be high but so long as they kept good animals on* good feed the fac tory staff would see that their clean sound cream was turned into an article that would hold' its own with any.

A number of questions were then asked and saisfactorily answered, and the meeting dispersed after the usual vote of thanks. The settlers have information which will give there* food for reflection for some time to come and already there is a movement on foot to open up a road into Kio Kio so that a remunerative contract may be established which will probably carry the creaui of some twenty farms.