BUTTER PRICES.

Putaruru Press, Volume II, Issue 56, 20 November 1924, Page 4

BUTTER PRICES.

TESTS AND OVER-REN. An address on tests and over-run, and their effect cn the prices received for butter, was given by Mr. C. P-Ag-ar to a meeting of dairy farmers at Ohoka, Canterbury. Mr. Agar said that butter was not all butterfat. Butter as a commercial article contained legally 80 per cent, of butterfat, 16 per cent, of moisture and 4 per cent, of salt and solids. In each pound of butter, therefore, there was 80 per cent, of butterfat. That portion of the butter which was not butterfat was the overrun, and the over-run of a butter factory -was in theory 25 per cent. The cream was tested for its butterfat content, and the farmer was paid for the butterfat content. If they could be exactly accurate in everything they did in the factory then there would be 1001 b of butter manufactured for every SOlb of butterfat. By means of charts he explained in detail the over-run as it worked out in practical making. So far as the test was concerned, the most that separated the various butter-making-factories, given equal efficiency, was 1 per cent. He had met many farmers who believed that they could get many points of difference in test as between one factory and another. By means of charts Mr. Agar illustrated the effect on over-run caused by the giving- of a test that was not correct. If three cans of cream were taken, identical in every way, and one was given a test of 35, another a test of 32, and the third a test of 29, it would mean that the man who was given the 29 test would still be supplying 351 b of butterfat, and the factory would make the same quantity of butter. The difference went into over-run. To the man who believed in the big- margins in tests, all he could say was, go on believing, but he would find that when hard times came he would have ample uses for the money he had leit in the factory through his belief in the big difference in tests. Some companies might be inclined to do that sort oi thing- tor competitive purposes, but legislation now existed for the protection of the farmer, and every dairy factory was compelled to publish its over-run every year. That was the check which the Government had provided for the benefit of the dairy farmer as to the honesty and integrity of the company with which he was dealing.

Mr. Agar read certificates from auditors and the professor of mathematics at Canterbury College in support of his claim that the figures

ihe submitted were accurate in every detail. Many of the troubles that the farmers had had in the matter of the quality of their cream had been lound to be due to the fact that their machines were defective, but steps 1 were being 1 taken to assist the farmers in this respect, and he was prepared to give whatever aid he could in this respect. He stressed the importance of the farmers ascertaining for themselves the quality of the cream they were supplying. In the way in which they carried out their business many of the farmers were like a man who took his money to the bank without counting it, threw it over the counter, and merely told the teller to credit it to his account. In the same way farmers sent oil' their farms cream the quality of which they did not knew, and trusted to the dairy companies. That confidence was probably entirely well placed, but at the same time the farmer should have a check on the dairy company. The necessary apparatus whereby the farmer could make his own tests was very inexpensive, the method of testing could be easily and speedily learned, and the testing- itself would occupy very little of his time. He wished to do what was possible to educate the farmers in the matter of the factory side of their business. He did not pretend to be a farmer —he knew nothing of farming—but he did understand the commercial side, and wished to enlig-hten the farmers as to what was in their own interests. The farmer should know the weight and test of the stuff he sent off his place. If he did not, then he was running his business by rule of thumb, and that was not the method by which he could expect to prosper. The Department of Agriculture, he pointed out, was quite ready to help the farmers in the matter of their tests. When he knew what was the butterfat content of his cream, then he would know whether or not he was beingpaid what he should be. He urged that the Ohoka Dairy Farmers’ Association should take this matter up~ and educate the farmers of their district. It was a duty they owed to their members, and one which, if they discharged it, would confer great benefits on the farmers of the district.