Dairymen in Conference

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1004, 21 June 1930, Page 31

Dairymen in Conference

National Dairy Association

NEXT week the' “Dairyman’s Parliament” meets for its annual conference in This year’s conference of the National Dairy Association of New Zealand should be a rather important one for, apart from suggestions regarding! the domestic policy and organisation of the association, delegates will be called upon to give an opinion on several rather important questions.

The National Dairy Association of j,'ew Zealand draws its membership front practically every co-operative dairy company of any importance in the North Island. It is really a combination of the dairying interests which has played an important part in guiding the industry in the North Island, through the ups and downs of the past quarter of a century. Since the inauguration of the Dairy Produce Control Board it has tended to develop more and more into a trading concern, having as its chief aim the buying and distributing of supplies to dairy companies at the lowest possible cost. In many' ways it has been very successful in this, and has rendered a very real service to the tarmer. During the past year or so there has been a growing feeling in certain quarters that the association should extend its activities in the direction of the work undertaken by the Control Board; it is argued, with considerable force, that it could quite well undertake the duties of the board at a big saving to the country, as the board now does little more than arrange shipping, and to do that has rather an extensive organisation. The argument is that much of the board's organisation is superfluous, and in a competitive organisation would have to suffer considerable retrenchment. Prior to the establish-

ment of the board, and even in conjunction with it for a considerable time, the National Dairy Association had much to do with arrangements for shipping, and has demonstrated that it is fully competent to undertake the work. Delegates to the conference will be called upon to discuss remits bearing on this question. Other annual meetings, more or less subsidiary to that of the National Dairy Association, and . composed largely of the same membership, will be held at Hamilton next week. Among these the New Zealand Cooperative Herd-testing Association will take a rather important place. This association has played a big part in the raising of production over the past 10 years, and its record for the season 1929-30 is a most satisfactory one. The association tested 90.561 cows for an average vield each cow of 2G3lb. of butter-fat in 260 days. When it is remembered that the average production each cow in New Zealand a few years ago was well under 2001 b., the full value of this satisfactory figure to the Dominion can be more readily assessed. Every year the association is increasing its activities, and every year more and more farmers are realising the value of systematic culling- and testing if production per farm is to be raised. Next week’s conferences at Hamilton should he productive of much good, even if they only result in dairymen’s representatives getting together and discussing their various problems. Good always comes out of discussions conducted on the right lines.