FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 209, 2 March 1912, Page 8

FARM AND DAIRY.

BUTTER, CHEESE, OR CASEIN. [ It is quite probable that the question of commencing the manufacture of casein as an alternative to the manufacture of cheese will be brought up at the meeting of shareholders in the Eltham Dairy Company be held on Saturday next (says the Argus.) At the present time better returns are being obtained from cheese than from butter, but for a butter factory to instal cheese plants would entail a considerable outlay, much greater than would be necessary if the manufacture of casein were decided upon. If casein taking other things into consideration, would make up the deficiency in the ibutter returns as compared with cheese, jthe question of installing casein plants «eems to be worth considering. The Rongotea Dairy Company's directors recently decided that it would be suicidal to convert the factory and that it is wiser to stick to the manufacture of butter, but they are investigating the merits of the casein business and further developments in that direction are being awaited. The value of skim milk as against whey for pig-feeding has to be taken into consideration, and pigs form a very profitable eide-line. The actual cash returns from casein and the value of skim milk must be added together in estimating the possible returns from the by-products of a butter factory, and comparing it with the value 'of cheese-factory by-products, then by taking the- respective values of butter and cheese and the cost of providing and equipping factories, etc., an estimate may be arrived at I which will form a useful guide in deter- | mining on the course most advisable to , pursue.

A 'British consular report states that Siberia's butter exports amount to £4,000,000 annually. Of the total output, which is obtained from 2000 to 3000 farms, representing a capital of only £1,600,000, European Russia, Germany, England and Denmark take between them 50,000 tons. At present the area of production of butter is a strip of country of about 200 to 250 miles along the railway from the Urals to the Obi, and thence to the Altai Mountains, surrounding which tract are vast stretches of country which a railway would immediately add to the comparatively insignificant area now devoted to dairying. Exports of other cattle products are placed at £2,000,€>00 annually, and attempts have lately been made to introduce Siberian meat into England and Germany. More recently a shipping trade in game ■ and poultry has been set going, and the [eggs supplied to other countries are increasing very, rapidly in number.