The Future Of the Dairy Industry in New Zealand.

Te Aroha News, Volume XII, Issue 1757, 7 August 1895, Page 2

The Future Of the Dairy Industry in New Zealand.

Being a lecture delivered, by Mr. J. B. M’Ewan (Chief Government Dairy Expert) before the National Dairy Association in conjunction with the Otago A. and P. Association ; Mr P. Pattullo in the chair: — Mr M'Ewan said: Glancing at the existing conditions of things in New Zealand, he knew of no; country which in respect of climate, soil, and other factors that contributed to the success of the industry, was more favourably situated than New Zealand, but the isolated position of the colony necessiated that an effort should be made to utilise the natural conditions to the best advantage* It was of the utmost importance that all small economies should be attended to, and that the business should be put on the best possible basis—by which he meant that the- importance • of factory mangement, payment for milk, and the utilisation of bye products should he recognised, and that endeavours should be made to aqquire the latest information as to the industry. The past year had given rather a severe lesson to those engaged in ‘ the industry, the market quotations being lower than they had been since 1878, when people ih New Zealand were not much interested in dairying. Seeing that the markeyjhey were trying to gain possession of was h discriminating one, it was .necessary thsj the people in .. New Zealand, in ■'order to. establish a national reputation for •their products, should put skill, knowledge, ■ and clear thinking into thair work. Even this year, notwithstanding the depressed market, the best quality of goods had given a vqry fair.return.- He might not be right in anticipating that in the year to come tfiere would be a return to the old prices, but if the farmers of New Zealand used their natural-resources and supplied a first class article, there need be no fear of their not j&ymg return for their products/- Their chief opponents in the , British market were Denmark for butter and Canada for cheese. In the year 189394, Denmark supplying upwards of 40 per cent of the butter imported into Great Britain and Canada upwards of 50 percent of the cheese, whereas the total exports of ’ dairy produce from New. Zealand to Britain represented about 2£. per cent, of the imports into the mother country. Another point of importance was, .that those countries which had - succeeded in establishing a reputation had only done so by closely watching the requirements of the market and by catering for the wishes of the consumers. Wherever people were prepared to do this the result was very satisfactory. To make the business a success in New. Zealand, it was necessary that there should be concerted action and that energy and skill- should be applied to the work. They must have the best. cows in their herd ; there was no best breed. The cow that was needed was a business cow, a cow that gave the-most milk of the best quality at the least cost of production and that responded to kind handling and good feeding. There was greater variation in individual cows than in any breed. By no means would he have them, cultivate the general purpose cow;. they must have a special purpose cow.

In the selection and breeding of cows they should keep as their goal the possession of‘cows producing 11,0001 b to 12,000 lb of milk, these being the results actually obtained from cows by some of the best dairymen iu Canada. - As to the feeding, he insisted that it only paid to feed well. The result of indifferent feeding as compared with careful* feeding and handling was shown in the results obtained by a dairyman who, in 1833, obtained from four cows an average of 781 b of butter from each, in the next year, with a little better- feeding, an average of 1311 b, and in 1390, with bettor feeding still, an average of 204 Jib. Ec'-noiny demanded that something should be done in dairying in the winter months. He believed that in the future development of the industry in this colony,' when competition would be most keen, dairymen would find it to their best interests to mam -ufacture cheese and butter round, and it would be necessary, for economy’s sate, that they should give their cows shelter in the winter and provide a cheap succulent food for winter feeding; He had been told it would not pay; but.the same objection had been met in Canada/where there were a great many more difficulties to contend against;' and he believed it was the many difficulties which-'had aided, the people to overcome them. • With the Canadians, dairying was all the-year dairying. ■/They made; cheese, durihg six months and butter during .six months of the yea* They ..could not afford to have their capital lying idle for five or six months in thefyear—it wa,s poor business. In most callings it was found neceprary to work for.twelve months in the year, to make a living, and he believed it would be found necessary that the same "conditions should apply to the dairying industry. They were also inclined in Canada to‘think that it was profitable to have their cows coming in in the fall-, as they gave 30 per cent more milk than if they came in in the spring, and the farmers sold their products for 30 or 40 per cent •more than was realised' in the summer. The lecturer also advised that the young cows should be kept milking for eight, nine, or ten months,.even if they only give a cupful of milk, for thus were the heifers educated for the following year. Regarding winter feeding, he advocated that, where possible, Indian com should be grown for ensilage. The average in Canada was 18 or 20 tons of ensilage for an acre of land. It was, he said, found that small farms, on which only the best cows were kept, and were fed and cared for properly, got the best results and made most money,. ,

Though it was pleasing to observe the rise-in the price of, wheat, he maintained that such countries as New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and the United States could not compete in the wheat market with Russia, India, and the Argentine Republic, where the cost of production was less, and where less skill in production was required. Respecting the proper, manufacture of cheese and butter, he urged that all managers must be thoroughly up to date in their system of manufacturing; a d in order to make the industry a success, they must have the co-operation of everyone who was interested in dairying. . One of the movements in the future development of the industry should be towards the establishment of dairy schools. (Applause). He did not wish to undervalue the good and praiseworthy work which had been done in this country by the Department of Agriculture and those who were carrying on the work; but where they were not rubbing up against the people who were trying to get ahead of them, it ■ waß difficult to keep up yvitli the times. - He had found that in this colony there -jras a lack of exact information and a lack of knowledge as to why certain things .were done. . There were a great number of suppliers who were rather indifferent as to the quality of the article they supplied to the factories, and it was even argued that the best qualities were supplied from the filthiest surroundings. It was imperative that cleanliness must he observed in every particular. If the people were educated with a knowledge of the conditions which must be observed, better

results could be looked for, and the establishment of dairy schools would, he believed/be productive of the best results. The managers were doing well, but if. they were to ask a man what was the composition of milk he would probably be unable to answer, or if they were to ask a man why he did a certain thing with the milk in cheesemaking he would simply say lie did it because the man he was taught by had done it. There must be thorough conversance with details in manufacture, and this was what should be taught in dairy , schools in which, however, with practical teaching, should be •combined technical teaching and lectures and discussions. The establishment of experimental stations would also be beneficial. The advantage of all experimental work was twofold. Each act of investigation had a double purpose to serve, —-it was competent to discover what was before unkt- -wn-p, and it was ; competent to impart instcoctioin The work of every department of'agricul■ture was to lead and show the way, for a department was able to gain the latest information and to carry on experimental work at the smallest cost to the country. Connected with the experimental work there should be small dairy farms, at which experiments in the different breeds of cows, in the different feeds, and in winter dairying could be made. Experimental stations—* would also be helpful in enabling exact information to be given.. To lessen the cost of production of cheese and ,bujbter it was • necessary that the by product§ should be utilised. Great Britain imported bacon in 1891 to the amount of <£10,000,000, of which Canada contributed to the. value of .£120,000, and Denmark to the value of £1,250,0(JO; Danmark showing an appreciation of the fact that it is necessary to cater to the wishes of the British market. It was important that the best quality of bacon should be produced; and by feeding the pigs on whey, /skim milk, and cereals the best quality was produced. The quality . •that'was desired was lean pork, dairy fed, with cereals. It was not economical to simply feed the pigs on whey—they did not thrive on it, and they must have solids in conjunction with it. The pigs, he maintained should be sold on foot at the nearest station.—(Hear, hear). .It was not quite business-like to send pigs to the plaqb of slaughter and to be paid so much per lb. dressed weight for them. It was not quite economical to have the pigs weighing more than from 1801 b to 2001 b—it was bacon from well fed pigs of weights ranging between these figures which gave most oatisfaction in the English market. Another point which had been proved by experiment was that the larger the pig and the greater the weight the greater was the cost of . putting on each additional pound df

live weight ; so that after the pigs .were of a certain size it did not pay to try and increase their weight. The average of a series -of experiments proved the following figures. The pigs were fed on mixed cereals. The'average weight of the pigs when experiments'started, was' from 7? to . 103 pound#. For the first month every pound of increase in weight took 3.81 pounds of grain; seconcT month, 8;07 ■ pounds of grain; third month, 31 per eent more,; fourth month 88 per cent more ; ©nd fifth month 110 per cent more or f 1.93 pounds of grain for every pound increase in weight. The average weight at. this stage was 231 pounds. The British market - will take an unlimited quantity of ham 3; and bacon, but they must bp well fed and . lean, and in the beat condition. Reverting to the subject of the manufacture of cheese and. butter, he emphasised . the importance of paying for the milk according to the quality. Where they paid for the milk according to quantity , there wa3. always a liability to buy milk which was not quite normal —aB it came'from the i cow,—and it put a premium upon careleas--1 ness, bad handling, and dishonesty, and put a discount upon good feeding, .careful selection, and kind handling. A fair average of the qualities of milk which was sent to the cheese and butter factories in Stenada was.that the. lowest quality was tested to ' contain 2.6 per cent of butter fat, and tbe richest milk contained 5 2 per cent of butter fat, ahd if they paid for the milk according to quantity the man who sent in the infer- 1 ior quality got. as much as the man who sent in the best. After a -series of careful and- exhaustive in- making butter and cheese from milk of different qualities the conclusions are that it is only fair, just and equitable system of paying for milk. The systemwas readily adapted for buttermaking but doubt was expressed as to the bitter-fat indicating the commercial value of milk for cheesemaking. Again repeated experiments were carried on in Canada and United States, and the result showed that iis the percentage of. fat Increased in4he milk, in almost equal proportion did the amount of cheese made from it, but the small deficiency in quantity was more than, equalled by the increased quality. On these results he contended it was desirable to adopt the system of paying according to quality.—-(Applause). In reply to questions, Mr M'Ewan recommended the growing of mangolds instead of turnips as feed for milk cows. He had not the information whioh would enable him to suggest a substitute which might be grown in Otago for Indian com for the purpose of ensilage.