NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Putaruru Press, Volume II, Issue 55, 13 November 1924, Page 2

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

SELLING PRICE OF BUTTER. Speaking at a meeting of suppliers recently, Mr. A. J. Sinclair, general manager of the- N.Z.C.D.C., Ltd., - —made a comment which has been heard from authorities for years past, but which some dairymen are slow to see in its full significance. Mr. Sinclair warned his hearers against the expectation of more than Is 6d per lb for butter in the United Kingdom market. Over a normal decade, the average of prices would probably not be greater than that in London, which means Is 4d in New Zealand, approximately. The dairy farmer is in an unfortunate position, inasmuch as most of the commodities he buys have their selling figures based on some sort of ~ fixed wages standards, preference to unionists, 14- or 48-hour week and so forth, while at the same time the product the daily farmer sells has no protection, and must compete in the open market against all the world. The dairy farmer is deluged with advice about scientific management, and no doubt in most cases he needs it—and so do the rest of us. But after he has introduced the most up-to-date methods, culled his herd, improved his pastures, he is still hard up against the solid commercial fact that the selling price of his butter is low by comparison with the cost of manures, fencing materials, timber, and nearly everything required on the farm. Up to the present, there does not seem to be any practicable method in sight for the reduction of this disparity, and it would seem that the dairy-farmer must study every point of the industry, if be is to come out on top.