DAIRY BOARD TROUBLES

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 386, 21 June 1928, Page 14

DAIRY BOARD TROUBLES

MR. W. GROUNDS DEFENDS HIMSELF CONFERENCE BECOMES STORMY Press Associatio)i. PALMERSTON N., Wednesday. Speaking at the conference of the National Dairy Association to-day, Mr. W. Grounds, chairman of the Dairy Produce Board, sought to show that the board could yet profitably market produce at Home and accomplish other things which would justify continuation of its existence.

He referred to the action of Mr. Goodfellow in resigning, and said the board could run along better without him.

Mr. Grounds added that lie had been aware of intrigues on the board and efforts made to gag him so that he could not make known what was eventuating. Merchants had no love for the board, and no doubt hoped they would continue as Kilkenny cats to their extermination. Mr. Grounds said he felt that those who understood the situation wanted him to continue in office.

“The way out of the present difficulty,” said Mr. Grounds, “is for the Dairy Board to undertake marketing for all factories* which desire it to do so.” This, he sa.id, would remove a.ll compulsion and could be accomplished through existing channels. without price-fixing or pooling. The board having officers in London and New Zealand could handle, with little cost, either on consignment or f.o.b. sales, as individual factories desired. They would secure the half per cent, commission which had been reimpceed when absolute control was terminated. That commission would be sufficient to pay the whole of the working expenses of the board, and consequently a greatly increased service would be given with practically no cost to the industry. At question time the meeting became uproarious, Messrs. lorns and Fulton, members of the board, asking pertinent questions. The chairman of the meeting, Mr. Morton, said he considered Mr. Grounds had not crossed the line of fair criticism.

Mr. S. A. Broadbelt (Levin) proposed approval of the action of the board chairman and support of his policy. An amendment that Mr. Grounds be accorded a vote of thanks was carried. Addresses were given by Mr. Singleton, director of the Dairy Division; Professor Riddet, of the Massey Agricultural College; and Dr. Reakes, of the Agricultural. Department. Dr. Reakes gave a long report of his visit abroad. •

CHEESE PRODUCTION

PAYMENT TO SUPPLIERS PRESENT SYSTEM UNJUST Press Association. NEW PLYMOUTH, Wednesday. Payment to suppliers of milk for cheese making on a fat test alone is unjust and fails to give a fair return. This, in effect, is the finding of Mr. P. O. Veale, in the final section of his report on cheese making published to-day. Illustrating this, Mr. Veale quotes returns for the month of September from the three herds concerned in the investigation and shows the x*esults which would obtain through the customary pooling method with standard payment per pound butter-fat. The returns show that the pooling method would mean that the Friesian supplier was 5.7 per cent, underpaid and the Ayrshire 0.7 per cent, underpaid, while the Jersey was 9.2 per cent, overpaid, according to actual realisations from cheese. This weakness of the butter-fat system when dealing with extremes of test has been recognised for many years, and numerous endeavours have been made to devise system of payment which would more nearly do justice alike to suppliers of low and high testing milks for cheesemaking, proceds Mr. Veale, who makes exhaustive examination of other methods tried and stresses the importance for cheese-making of the casein content. He concludes this examination with the remark: “We are therefore driven to the conclusion that the only method which has anj> real chance of getting near to justice will be one which takes cognisance of both butter-fat and casein in the proportions in which they actually influence the yielding capacity of the cheese-mak-ing milk.” As a means of meeting the difficulty, Mr. Veale proposes as a temporary measure the adoption of a new method, whereby the ordinary butter-fat test would be applied and production butterfat computed as at present, but the figure would be modified by multiplying the ratio of casein to fat. He considers the necessary casein testing could be easily introduced into factories for a small outlay and could be performed by the ordinary worker. As an alternative, lie proposes a system based on a scheme of penalties and compensations according to whether a supplier’s milk tested above or below the factory average. The general summary concluding the report includes a series of questions and answers.

MILK FOR THE EAST

N.z. CONCERN’S ENTERPRISE On tlie Marama to-morrow 2,000 cases of “Anchor” condensed milk will go forward destined for the Last. This is one of the first substantial shipments of this brand from the Dominion. As the name indicates the milk is the product of the New Zealand CoOperative factory. This company has only recently launched into the condensed milk busines and has fitted out a factory at Waitoa. The marketing of the milk is under the control of the Amalagamated Daries, Ltd., and the fact that the present shipment is going forward to Eastern ports indicates to some extent what that concern is doing to establish a demand for New Zealand produce in those parts. CHICAGO WHEAT MARKET (Australian F*rcss Association.) Reed. 9.5 a.m. CHICAGO, Wednesday. Wheat.—July, 1 dollar 37g cents bushel; September, 1 dollar 39 3-S cents; December, 1 dollar 401 cents. DAIRYING IN CANADA (United P.A. — -By Telegraph — Copyright) (United Service) OTTAWA, Wednesday. Dairy production in Canada for the current year is valued at £50,000,000. This does not indicate that the country has suffered much harm from the treaty with Australia. Milch cows have increased to 4,000.000. Seven billion lb of butter and two billion lb of cheese were produced in the past season.