MARKET IN ITALY

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 23, 19 April 1927, Page 2

MARKET IN ITALY

SHIPMENTS FROM TARANAKI A knock on the head with the back of a spade and a handy hole has, in the past, been the fate of the most dairymen’s newly-born cull calves. Taranaki farmers, however, have found a more profitable method of disposing of them. Dressed and rolled they find a ready market in Italy. Manawatu and West Coast dairymen recently interested themselves in the question and in response to inquiries the secretary of the Federation of Taranaki Co-operative Dairy Factories advised that at the beginning of the season the Patea Farmers’ Freezing Company launched a scheme for the collection of day-old calves, the price paid being 4s 6d or 5s according to size, delivered at the factory. Payment was made through the dairy companies. An. additional payment of 6d each was made in cases where farmers delivered the calves to the railway station, or Is each where they were delivered direct to the works. The calves were collected daily by motor-lorry. At the works the carcases were boned and rolled and shipments were quite successful. The veils were saved for rennet. It was considered there were great possibilities in the business, and if the gelatine process could be worked in conjunction, thus utilising the bones, the returns could be considerably augmented.

At a subsequent executive meeting of the Manawatu and West Coast Dairy Companies’ Association it was considered that provided the collecting of the calves could be arranged the industry had possibilities and it was decided to ascertain if the Patea Freezing Company would purchase the calves from the Manawatu.