THE DAIRYING INDUSTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 196, 16 February 1912, Page 7

THE DAIRYING INDUSTRY.

HOME SEPARATION SYSTEM. BUTTER-MAKING v. CHEESE. Mr. H. G. Hill, of Messrs Hill and Barton-, butter merchants, has just returned to Wellington from a visit to the Waikato and Taranaki dairying districts. Mr. Hill's object in visiting the north was principally to see for himself what has been done and what is being done under the home separation system with a view to pushing it in this province (says the Wellington Dominion). Opponents of home separation say the sys-, tem means a certain falling-off in the quality of the butter produce, but after his observations in the north Mr. Hill is convinced that a better butter can be manufactured from home - separated cream than that manufactured by a good many factories working on the old sy«tem.

NEUTRALISATION OP CREAM.

This is attributable, in the opinion of Mr. Hill, to what is known as the neutralisation of cream. This system is best explained by giving the results of a morning's work at the Whangarei dairy factory. Samples of cream were taken at the receiving stage and tested for acidity—anyone accustomed to handling cream must know that when it is kept a certain length of time cream develops acid—and it was here that the difficulty of making good butter from'home separated cream came in under the old method. If there were ten cans of cream, each one varying in degrees of acidity, the quality of the butter could not possibly be uniform. The cream was tested with the alkaline test, and the acidity ranged from .27 to .52 per cent. It was then put into a vat and a certain percentage of bi-carbonate of soda added, the effect being the setting up of an action on the acid in the cream and neutralising it, as well as equalising the acidity to about 24 per cent. The cream was then run through a pasteuriser, heated to about 175 degrees and then suddenly cooled. It was again tested and found to contain about .18 per cent, of acid. A starter was then added and the butter churned, when the acidity reached was about .34 per cent. It would thus be seen that the manufacture of butter from home separated cream, was anything but a haphazard business, and, in Mr. Hill's opinion, was an entirely different thing from the work of the ordinary butter-maker. Three years ago no instructor would have dreamed of the possibilities of this process, which was, as then, practically unknown; but as its effectiveness and utility had now been established he had no hesitation in predicting .tnat in a few years' time skimming stations, or cream» eries, would be things of the past, and the result of this from an economic point, of view could be easily imagined.

BUTTER v. CHEESE,

From observations in the Taranaki and Auckland provinces, Mr. Hill is firmly] convinced that where there is a sufficient I quantity of milk—say, from within a radius of five miles, cheesi ] must eventually displace butter on account of the higher price paid for butterfat for cheese-making. In Taranaki he found that the various boards of direct-' ,ors were deeply concerned in the ques-' tion whether they should change from butter to cheese, but to'some of theft.; it meant a very big thing. Take Eltham, for instance. This company had' just spent £9OOO on a splendid up-to--date butter factory and plant, which could not be utilised for cheese-making. Two or three companies in that district which were consigning their cheese to England anticipated paying Is 3d to Is 4d per lb for butter-fat, while the outside price that any butter factory could pay would be Is id. Farmers were beginning to.place less value on skim milk for pig feeding and calf raising purposes, especially as there was 2d or 3d per lb of butter-fat between milk supplied to butter and to cheese factories. With home separation it was different, be-, cause the young stock got the skim milk' Warm and at regular intervals. Home separation meant a tremendous lot to the Waikato, as there were many' districts which ifeould not raise a sufficient number of cows to warrant the erection of a creamery, and in many in ; stances the farmers did not, a few years ago, go in for dairying. Now, however, the cream was collected in such a systematic manner under home separation that he had been credibly informed that in back districts the value of land had increased as much as £2 or £3 an acre.

Opponents of the home separation had predicted that butter made under this system would ruin the good name of New Zealand butter, but he did not think he, was. stretching a point when he said that during the past five or six years he had handled many brands of butter, and he was certain that there were brands of butter manufactured, in the province,"".for which:' he would, give a farthing, per.pound more than for that turned out. by; some factories on the ,whole-milk principle. HERD TESTING.,

Mr. Hill said he was glad to see that dairymen were beginning to pay more attention to herd-testing, and when this important matter was taken up seriously they would he surprised to see the number of practically useless cows that were in use—some of them did not even pay' for their keep. It was necessary, in his opinion, that provision should be made to prevent one man handing his "duffers" On to another man, and this could be done by insisting that each «ow's milk tests must be produced at the time of sale. Unless this were done the benefits of herd-testing would be greatly diminished and the good work of the herdtesting associations considerably nullified.