DAIRY PRODUCTION

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 861, 3 January 1930, Page 11

DAIRY PRODUCTION

AUCKLAND’S PART IN FREEZING BIG N.Z. PERCENTAGE Sixty-six per cent, of the butter shipped from New Zealand in the last production year, ended on June 30, passed through the King’s Wharf base ol the Auckland Farmers’ Freezing Company. From the wharf store 16 per cent, of the Dominion’s cheese passed for export. The figures indicate the tremendous part played by the base in dairying production, not merely in the province’s returns, but in the figures for New Zealand. Apart from the butter produced in .Poverty Bay, the whole quantity issued from the factories of Auckland Province comes to King’s Wharf. For the year up to the end of last June. 2,1.69,708 boxes of butter and 183,213 crates of cheese were shipped from the store. Such has been the development of dairying since refrigeration made mass export a possibility that production in the province is almost doubled each seven years. More l reezing facilities are needed at peak times and space at the Southdown works is used when King’s Wharf cannot meet with the tremendous business. The Horotiu works are regarded as an emergency. Fifteen years ago there were three men on the grading staff; now there are 22. Finest butter is that graded at 93 points or more on the system of 50 points for flavour, 25 for body and texture, 20 for colour and salting, and five for iinish. First grade butter is at 90 to 93 points and second has a minimum cf 80. Only 1 per cent, of the butter graded in November was second.

King’s Wharf copes with produce coming from the coast or from North Auckland by rail. Consignments on the southern rails ax'© handled at Southdown. Grading itself is an intricate work. Moisture tests, involving a difference in weight by an evaporation process, and weighing follow grading. Experts judge the produce by taste, sight and smell. Butter must be delivered alongside refrigerated vessels at 15 degrees Fahrenheit. Four days constitute the minimum storage time. Cheese is chilled only to 45 to 55 degrees. Eggs are chilled at 32 degrees, but the point for egg pulp is 12 degrees.