FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 278, 21 May 1912, Page 7

FARM AND DAIRY.

SOUTH ISLAND DAIRY ASSOCIATION. The annual report of the South Island Dairy Association of New Zealand, Ltd., staes that the membership consists of 82 factories in Canterbury, Otago and Southland, these being practically the whole of -them . In addition to indent orders for factory requisites, totalling £2600, the .Association was useful in selling cheese locally, having for the year paid a net sum of £12,208 <Js 4d to factories who entrusted the Association with the sale of their cheese. None of this was soli for export, except a few tons for South Africa. Local prices ranged from 5%d per lb to 7d, and very little at a lower price. THE BRITISH MARKETS. The British markets 'have ruled at very high prices both for cheese and butter. Butter ruled up to 135s per cwt., starting early in November at 130s, and did not fall below 120s till the middle of April, when it began to fall steadily, mainly owing to the coming of spring and heavier supplies. Even during the great strike in March butter stood at 1275.

A large number of butter factories sold their outputs to the end of March at ll%d to ll%d, f.0.b., and buyers will have done so well that it should encourage them to buy freely again. A cry was at 'one time raised by a section of the British press that these high prices were due to a corner manipulating the market. They were probably instigated by a section of speculators who had, as they usually do, sold New Zealand btittsr forward, without holding any, at 110s, expecting the market to fall below 116s, but they had to buy at 130s and over to fill their contracts.

Thefo is the best of authority for saying that this year the high prices were due to a real shortage from drought in the summer and autumn in Britain, and on the Continent, and in America and Canada. No market manipulation was needed, as the following will show: The imports from all sources from January to June, 1011, were 2,397,1G3cwt., and from July to December 1,905,193cwt., a drop of (S!)2,97ocwt. So intense was the drought in Britain that Is per gallon and over was paid farmers for milk by town milk suppliers during the summer and j autumn of 1911, and a large quantity of I milk was diverted from butter and : chesse-making. There never probably was a season in which so little market manipulation took place. The drought and its effects ruled the situation all along. THE CHEESE MARKET. * The South Island cheese companies mostly sold at from Gd to Oy 4 d, f.0.b., , their outputs to the end ol April or May. | Only two factories sold at 5%d. There iwas a general eagerness to sell, and all was sold before the middle of September, mostly in August. This was i much earlier than generally, and, as results proved, the Association could have done better probably by waiting. ! Buyers will make a good profit, however, ; and will not be grudged it, as it has not always been so with them. The very few iwho consigned will net from 6%d to 7d, f.o.b. When the first of the cheese got Home in January, the market stood at 73s per. cwt. (as against 59s 3d the previous January), and has gone as high as 755, and now lately down to 60s 6d, but has now risen again to 725, with a firm market and an active demand. In cheese, as in butter, the high prices were due solely to shortage through drought both in Canada and the United Kingdom. From July to end of March, Canadian imports were 71,0O0c\vt. less than same period of the previous year, and the decrease will be greater by the end of May, the increase in New Zealand cheese not | making up for this shortage. There was no market manipulation till about the middle of April, when, as is usual, there was, it is believed, an attempt to lower prices in view of the Canadian season opening soon. There were in evidence even in March forward sellers of Canadian June makes at 01s to 635, c.i.f. Liverpool or London; but the shortage cannot be got over, and New /Zealand chacse will, for the next few months, rule considerably higher than the spring makes of Canadian, and it is probable that prices will not go lower for a time. THE EXPORT SEASON. The spring weather was cold and wintry, and against good milk production; and up to the end of December the exports were considerably short of the previous season. The New Zealand I butter export season commences in September, and cheese in October. But in ; Otago and Southland there is very, little export at all till November. In January conditions improved a little, but in the south the weather was sunless and cold, and pastures were never at their best, and from April onwards the weather has been colder than usual, wet and sunless, and against heavy milk production. It is therefore satisfactory that we have done remarkably well, and show a considerable increase in our exports, both from the Dominion as a whole and from Lyttelton, Dunedin and Bluff,from which ports the produce of the Association is exported. From the Dominion, taking London and West of England shipments together, we show a slight increase on butter shipments, and this, added to 52,028 •btoxes to Vancouver and San Francisco, and 5838 boxes of butter to South Africa this season, makes our butter export—all things considered--very satisfactory, and ahead of last season. Our cheese shipments, London and West of England, show the very satisfactory increase of 7<5,536 crates of cheese—4soo tons.