FARMING AFFAIRS

Lake County Mail, Issue 41, 17 March 1948, Page 6

FARMING AFFAIRS

Th is column is supplied weekly by Federated Fanners of New Zealand- Th© information given is official but any views expressed are those of the federation and are not necessarily those of this newspaper. CHILLING MILK Town milk producers who have installed refrigeration plant for chilling milk will all not necessarily receive payment of the chilling margin of 0.5 d per gallon. That information, when given to the executive of the Town Milk Producers’ Federation, by the Director of Milk Marketing (Mr K. H. Innes) was received rather unfavourably, and appeared hardly in line with the agreement made last year. Under certain circumstances, said Mr Innes, milk was double-chilled. It was chilled on the farm and then further chilled at a balancing station prior to being carted to a treating house in some districts. His decision, he said, had to be that the chilling margin could be paid only once, either to the producer or to the balancing station. Only under extenuating circumstances could he agree to consider recommending payment of the margin to both the producer and the balancing station. That decision came as a bombshell to the producers’ executive. Members felt that the contract implied direct payment to those producers who fulfilled the refrigeration requirements. They had worked on that assumption since the agreement was made last year and in their opinion the essence of successful chilling was that the process was carried out on the farm. The margin paid will be different in cases where the producer carries out only one part of the process of chilling and holding the milk in a chillroom. After a full discussion, the director agreed that, in the case of a producer chilling his milk by use of an aerator only, the margin paid would be 0.33 d per gallon. The full 0.5 d would be paid only if the chilled milk was held at a low temperature in a proper chill-room. Similarly if the milk was merely held in a chill-room ail'd not previously passed over on aerator, 0.33 d per gallon was the margin fixed. The previous basis of payment was that 0.25 d per gallon was paid when only one of the processess was carried out. DUTY OF BALING TWINE As a result of representations made by Federated Farmers, the Minister of Customs has authorised “ a very substantial reduction in ” the rate of duty on treated or impregnated twines for use with baling machines when those twines are imported from the United States, the principal source of supply. The federation actually asked for the abolition of the duty on baling twine at this time when local manufacturers were unable .to meet requirements. No duty was, moreover, charged on baling wire. Writing for the Minister of Customs, Mr H. E. Combs, M.P., said that he regretted that under the Customs Act it was not jmssible to eliminate the duty even as a temporary measure. The action he had taken represented the maximum concession that could lawfull} 7 be made but he would bear the federation’s representations in mind with a view to seeing if later it might be possible to take legislative action in the direction desired.