CHEESE INDUSTRY.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 405, 12 April 1937, Page 4

CHEESE INDUSTRY.

I Quality of Milk Supplied Factories. ! (To the Editor). I Sir, —I was very much impressed j with "Outlook's” letter in your issue lot Aprils in .v.’hich he draws at’.en- | tion to the very grave situation into ] which the cheese industry of this Do- ! minion is drilling. Unless drastic land- immediate steps are taken by Ithe authorities our cheeio industry I will undoubtedly receive a most seri lous setback. | Figures supplied by the Primary i Products Marketing Board thow that j for the year 1936 the total quantity ! of cheese imported into England was I 134,015 tons, of which 84,159 tons, or J over 62 per cent, of the total, came ’ I from New Zealand. \ At the present time several of the 'largest cheese tactor. a In Taranaki ■ | have discontinued cheesemaking in I i favour of butter and casein., They I I have found that the IJd per lb fat ■ I differential for cheese >is not suf • I fleient,. By switching over to but er | and casein they can get another ISd j per lb fat for their suppliers. . "Outlook" strikes the root of the j'rouble in the" cheese industry when j he refers to the quality of milk supplied to cheese factories. j It is a 'Well t stablished fact that i moderate testing milk with small fat i globules is the most suitable for i cheese making inasmuch as such milk ■gives ease of manufacture, the highjest quality cheese and the greatest yield of cheese per pound of bu.ter--1 fat. Owing- to the ever increasing preponderance of high testing milk sup- ■ plied to cheese factories the quantity 1 of cheese manufactured' from each i pound of butterfat is steadily falling, | e.g, in some factories in Taranaki I the yield has been very.low this year. ! Dr McDowall, Dairy Research Injttitute Chemist, in his 364 page res j port on “The Cheese Yielding Capacity of Milk and i s Relation to the I Method of Payment for Milk for Cheesemaking," states that milk testpng 3.6 per cent, fat yields 2.7211 b ■cheese per lb fat, while milk testing I 5 per cent, yields 2.3411 b cheese. ■ Yet under the present system all I suppliers receive the same payment i per pound of but terfat despite the i wide variations in the cheese,yielding l capacity of their milks. Surely this i is a rank injustice when it is known i that I,ooolb fat from milk testing 3.5 ' , per cent, yields 2,7211 b cheese, while 11,0001 b fal from milk testing 5 per ; eent. yields only 2,3411 b cheese—-a |difference of 3801 b cheese in favour . I of the lower .ing milk.. | The present system is, therefore, i most inequitable and Dr McDowall ■ recommend® that payment should be | made on the casein-fat ratio in the | milk, the cost? of manufacture being ; distributed over the suppliers by a i deduction at a certain rate per gallon ' of milk. ; U the Minister for Agriculture and Ibis Department do not take im. I mediate steps to rectify the grave ini justice of the present system of payiment, they will find that before long G-nly milk suitable for cheesemaking J will be supplied, wi.h the result that the great majority of the factories in Hhe Dominion will be forced to disI c ontinue cheesemaking. Such ac.ion I would be a national calamity, result ing in the loss of a market bringing i in many millions of pounds yearly to our dairy farmers.—l am, etc., , "CHEESE SUPPLIER.” Morrlnsville, April 9, 1937,