DAIRYING IN AFRICA.

Putaruru Press, Volume III, Issue 99, 17 September 1925, Page 7

DAI RYING IN AFRICA.

50LB OF BUTTERFAT PER COW. The following* in the report of the Land and Agricultural Bank of South Africa is interesting* reading because of the reference to the cost of production and the comparisons with Queensland:—

The dairy industry experienced almost the worst year on record. Owing to drought and locusts, milk production dropped considerably, and naturally the output of butter suffered accordingly. The board is informed that during* 1924 roughly only one half of the normal average quantity of butter was made and that :.n some districts only about 30 per cent, of the preceding year’s output was <a a n ufact ure d.

These conditions justified the payment of high prices by co-operative creameries to farmers anti during last summer the price of hutterfat was about Is 6d per pound, compared with the usual price of Is. l'Shortag*e of supplies in the Union permitted the import of about a million and a half pounds of butter at prices below that at which our creameries could compete after paying* our farmers the high prices mentioned for butterfat. As a consequence the creameries were obliged to reduce the prices for butterfat during* the winter season to such an extent that there was no profit in it for the farmers. It is exceedingly difficult to establish a prosperous dairy industry if in its early stages it is subjected to the vagaries of world’s prices, which may be profitable to other countries but which possess no attraction for our producers. Unless our farmers are paid a price which is sufficient to cover cost of production and a reasonable profit it is obvious that they cannot continue to interest themselves 5u a business that causes loss.

. Our output is roughly twenty million pounds of butter per year, as compared with fifty-three million pounds in Queensland. In the Union about 50 per cent, of the output is farm butter, while in Queensland the proportion of farm butter is only about 1 1-3 per cent.

In Queensland there are only 43 creameries, of butter factories, each with an average output of more tlian a million pounds of butter, while in the Union we 1: we about 85 factories, most of which h. e too small an output. It is obviou that the Union cannot successfully ompete with even Queensland as our manufacturing costs are bound lo be high owing to the excessive number of factories.

Incidentally, the average return per cow is 1501 b of butterfat per annum in Queensland, whereas it is not much over 501 b per cow in the Union.

The board has deafrt a- this length with the position of our dairy industry because it wants .to- bring* it home to our ‘farmers that the position is very serious indeed. It agrees with the superintendent of dairying that “ unless a better sprrit of co-opcra-tion is speedily engendered, and the erroneous idea of working on individual lines is quickly replaced by the more concentrated effort, the butter industry stands little chance of competing in the markets of the world.'’