CHEESE PRODUCTION

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 384, 19 June 1928, Page 12

CHEESE PRODUCTION

FARMERS LOSING MONEY EXPERT’S UNEXPECTED FINDING Press Association. HAWERA, Monday. Many farmers are losing large sums of money by the present adherence to the high testing of cows for cheese-making purposes. This, in effect, is the finding of Mr. P. O. Veale, research chemist in charge of the Taranaki Dairy Federation laboratory, who has recently completed a. series of experiments concerning the values of high and low testing milk for cheesemaking. Mr. Veale found that cheese produced from the milk of Friesians returned 2d a lb butter-fat more than the product of the high testing herd. Expressed in percentage form, the actual average yields secured over the whole season show a strong preponderance in favour of low testing milks. The Friesian production was over 13 per cent, more cheese, and the Ayrshire over 9 per cent, more cheese a lb of butter-fat than the Jersey, states Mr. Veale. On the other hand, the old contention that Jersey cheese would sell at a premium on the Home market, 'due to its higher butter-fat content, has been borne out. it having averaged 2d a cwt over the whole season in advance of the.* price realised for the low testing product, though this premium on the total sales actually made little impression upon the increased production a lb butter-fat of the low r testing milk. For the purposes of investigation, the milks of three herds, consisting of 55 Jerseys, 50 Ayrshires and 70 Friesians, were made into cheese under ordinary factory conditions, in three experimental vats, situated in an ordinary cheese factory owned by the Hawera Cooperative Dairy Company at Tokaora. Full analyses by standard official methods were made daily in the laboratory of all constituents of the milk, whey and cheese. Each batch of cheese was weighed separately, graded in New Zealand, regraded, weighed and valued In London, and full reports on the quality and suitability were supplied by experts appointed in London. Referring to the New Zealand regulations requiring that export cheese shall contain not less than 50 per cent, of fat in dry matter, the report remarks that since cheese from normal Friesian and Ayrshire milk frequently falls below that standard during the spring months, the effect of the regulations is to place undue restrictions upon those breeds. It is significant, continues Mr. Veale, that these breeds form a large proportion of the cheese herds of our Canadian competitors, and that the standard set in Canada for export cheese is 45 per cent. Since Canadian has, at least during the last few years, consistently commanded a premium over New Zealand cheese, we may well ask ourselves whether our regulations are wisely framed, and, if so, what return are we getting for the burden of the extra 5 per cent, of butter-fat with which we voluntarily load ourselves?