DAIRYMEN MEET

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 77, 22 June 1927, Page 1

DAIRYMEN MEET

CONFERENCE AT ROTORUA A YEAR OF DIFFICULTY Over Three Hundred Delegates (.Special to THE SUN.) ROTORUA, To-day. rE of the most important New Zealand dairy conferences opened here this morning;. More than 300 delegates, representing over 240 factories, which comprise the membership of the National Dairy Association, assembled for the annual meeting.

■yTR. T. McDOWELL, Mayor of Roto-1 rua, in welcoming the delegates. ; pointed out that brilliant agricultural j results had been recently obtained in | the pumice country, and he hoped | that the delegates would give any assistance possible towards opening up the 5,000,000 acres south of Rotorua, by rail. The president, Mr. A. Morton, of Egmont Village, in discussing the annual report, said that he had to repeat what was said last year, that it was astonishing that the industry, for the past few years, had uot made much progress, with the tremendous area ■ available for dairying. One notable exception was North Auckland, which had made tremendous strides. Much land previously considered useless was now producing. As regards the quality of the produce, there had been a very considerable improvement in the last year, grading payments for superfine butter and the good work by factory managers being mostly responsible.

He drew attention to the fact that three years ago he had warned producers that a possible decrease in prices must be met by increased production. All primary products had fallen except wool. The importation of European pork into England which had been expected to favour the New Zealand product had proved exceedingly disappointing. It was difficult to see whether the prevention of the fall had been in their hands, or had been brought about by the economic factors, such as the reversion to the gold standard. Research activities, including those of the agricultural college were rapidly advancing. Herd-testing had not advanced as,, it did in previous years, and considerable improvement was required. He w T as pleased to see that the Waikato was advancing in this respect and one group had put up a world’s record. If similar results were obtained by others, it would mean £5,000,000 more yearly on the financial return. Herd-testing was the first essential in improving both production and produce.