FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 196, 16 February 1912, Page 2

FARM AND DAIRY.

NEWS AND NOTES,

(From our Waitara Correspondent). ■ Despite the apparently unfavorable weather conditions existing, the milk supply at the North Taranaki Co-opera-tive Dairy Co. keeps buoyant. During January 1,145,7i131bs of milk were received, as against 971,2421bs for the previous January, an increase of 174,4711b5. This is the first time on record that the company have received over a million pounds of milk for two successive months, and the current month promises to keep up well. Butter'made was 24 tons 14cwt., being an increase of 3 tons lOcwt. in comparison with 1011 Suppliers receive £IM6 14s 7d for milk! an increase of £294,10s 4d on the corresponding month of last year. The quality of the milk is well maintained. The manager is making Ave boxes per day now more than in February, 1911. At a meeting of the North Taranaki Co-operative Dairy Co. a vote of sympathy was passed to Mr. W. Old, who recently met with a serious accident, and I a hope was expressed of his early re- [ covery. Mr. Old has been a director , of the company since taking up a farm in the district, and prior to that he was for several years chairman and a director of the Waitara Dairy Co. There is every probability of the settlers in the far end of the Okoke road going in for home separation and sending their cream to the North Taranaki Dairy Co. If this becomes an accomplished fact it means the fixing of a new cream vat, engine and "freezer to cope with the increased supply. The Waitara Dairy Co. received 1,027,97'81bs of milk during January, an increase of 256,5501bs on the preceding January. Butter made" amounted to i 52,6261b5, an increase of nearly 5*4 tons on the corresponding month of last year. Suppliers received £2017 0s lOd, as against £1442 16s 6d for 1911, an increase of £564 4s 4d. The milk supply is keeping up wonderfully well. The payment to suppliers of over £2OOO constitutes a record in the factory's payments.

The February circular of the South Island Dairy Association states that the butter market is very firm and inclined to advanee further, and that cheese is selling in small lots of medium at 6%d, and 7d is expected for small lots coming to hand. Supplies are short. From the commencement of this season to the end of January over 600,000 boxes of butter have been shipped from the Dominion, and 184,101 crates of cheese.

The value of a cow during the milking season was involved in a case heard in the Magistrate's Court, Wairarapa. Two expert witnesses expressed the opinion that it was a fair average that would produce £lO a year with the profit on pigs and calves included. Probably, if testing were systematically carried oat, it would he found that a good many cows did not reach that average. The New Zealand correspondent of Dalgety's Review affirms that not for fifteen years past has there been a spring similar to the last one, the climatic conditions having been ket, cold and boisterous. The milk yield, he mentions, shows a considerable shrinkage, as confirmed by the butter exports to the United Kingdom. Comparing this season's exports with the corresponding period of last year, the decrease is 56,000 boxes or butter, equal to 1400 tons. From this shrinkage there must, of course, be deducted the quality sent to the West Coast of America, but even when that is taken into account it does not materially affect the point at issue. Cheese, on the other hand, has. increased by nearly 15,000 crates.