HOW IS IT DONE?

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 9, Issue 543, 25 June 1920, Page 3

HOW IS IT DONE?

THE DAIRY FARMERS' PROBLEM.

In addressing annual meeting of suppliers to the New Zealand Cooperative Dairy Company Limited during the past few weeks, Mr. A. J. Sinclair, assistant-manager of the company, has submitted figures showing that butter suppliers are having a fofcd road to hoe at the price received for their produce. One typical instance was given of a man who was a practical dairy farmer, milking 54 cows on a farm of 160 acres, a portion of which was in scrub. The Government valuation of the farm was £6IOO, and there was » mortgage of about £3OOO. The '.mly charge this farmer debited ag-dnst the farm for himself was 6 per cent, on his equity. He kept his accounts accurately, and the following is a summary which ne had just prepared on the assumption that he will re ceive about Is 8d per lb for his butterfat:—

Receipts.—Butteifat, £61)4; calves and pigs, £230. Total £924. Expenditure.—Rates and insurance£4s; interest on mortgage, £177; 6 per cent, equity, £180; seed ttnd foodstuffs, £94; one man's wages, £160; repairs and maintenance, £23; freights and cartage, 5,32; manure, sacks, etc., £94; horseshoeing and sundries, £2l. Total, 51826. This farmer was therefore left with 198 to pay for the services of himself, his wife, and three children, who all helped in the milking. He himself worked from daylight to dark, and his wife's health had broken down through overwork. 'lhe only reason thai this farmer made ends meet at the present time was because he bought his farm ten years ago when the price was much below the present Government .valuation. Th'is case, said Mr. Sinclair, was simply typical of many others, and it was a mystery how the dairy farmer who was paying £SO and >6O per acre for nis land was a tie to make a success at the price now being received for butter.