CASEIN MANUFACTURE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 212, 27 January 1913, Page 7

CASEIN MANUFACTURE.

MEETING AT WAITAKA. | (From Our Own Con spondent.) f On Friday a meeting of factory diree- ; tors was held in Waitara for tin; purpose of hearing from Mr. I'cdersen, of ■ jlhe dairy staff, the results of his enquiries in regard to the manufacture of casein and as to its future (so far as such can be gauged reasonably) as an article of commerce that can be dealt with profitably at factories in the Dominion. Representatives were present from Midhirst, Moa, Lepperton, Bell Block, Waitara Koad, Tikorangi and North Taranaki. Mr. H. Leper was voted to \fche chair. Mr. Pedersen, in his address, first referred to the fact that it was only of recent years that the manufacture of casein had been put on a, commercial - footing in the same respect as butter and cheese, but it had now fully established itself and was growing year by year owing to the fact that the product was required now for so many purposeis, and almost daily new outlets of manufacture were being found. The United gtates and the Argentine produced some 8000 or 9000 tons yearly, whilst the Danish output was some 2000 to 3000 tons. The Danish output varied considerably owing to two causes, one beingthe manufacture of skim milk cheese* and the other to the sale- of skim milk for household purposes, artificial foods and margarine. Unless the Danes received equal to about 2%d per pound for butter-fat for their skim milk they turned to the other method of manufacturing skim milk cheese. They had a certain market for the latter product which the Dominion could not hope for, and were able to disnose of skim milk where we could not. There did not appeaT to him any possibility of over production of casein, as its uses were growing so fast. On £he Continent manufacturers were finding that casein even at the big prices it had been bringing- was warranted, and they were quick to instal plants's6 that whpre. other things had been used in the making of many articles', more especially paints" size and paper, casein was a better substitute and more economical. It was largely used where previously gum arahic and glue were required, and when £hese men were prepared,.tp, throw out their old machinery and instal nqw it showed their faith in tin? value of, casein as a commercial article. The English manufacturers were more slpw ,tn., adopt new methods, henee the fact of the bulk of the product being sold ,qiy, the Continent. One important fact about casein was that if of good qualjty.it did not deteriorate by-keeping, and was as good in two or three, years as wlien first made. Therefore, if such a thing as ; ,a ■slump occurred it could be kept almost, indefinitely until such time as the,market' recovered." From all he could there was no chance of such a slump oe- . curing, but he only wanted to pouit out' the fact that low prices "could always be obviated. He had been asked the, que?:. tion recently why casein had' dipped in, value to such a low price... Thjs W;as : accountable for by the fact that a very; poor quality had been made, the j consequence being that a poor price was,; obtained.. With the method in vogue to-. day there was no necessity to' make any; ; thing but a first-class article, tha,t is.with ordinary intelligence being brought ij to bear in its manufacture. ' New Zear,] land milk was particularly well adapted,, for the manufacture of casein, being!Eich;j in quality, and so far as he could feee after j Jnvestigation in Denmark, w'e could j duce casein quite equal to the best roade.j elsewhere. As to feeding qualities'* of the j resultant whey he could not speak as an ' experienced farmer, but evidently it had a good Value when the Danes were able to export yearly from £6,000,000 to £7,000j000 worth "of bacon.; Of course,,' like most other matters, there; was .a difference of opinion and he supposed always would be. .He'would advise caution in the expenditure of large amounts for atleast the present jrearin the erection of drying plants, and thought thei farmers would be wise in simply instaj-ij ling the'plarils at say one of : their,fac;,j tories or creameries, and .satisfy them'-'] selves of its benefits before launching, j out. -- These- plants simply, mrtde,- tjhe. ; green'casein, which was further dealt j with at the Aramoho drying station, j :Midhirs"t had just installed such a plant, and- were working under ithe> conditions stated..

In reply to questions. :Mr. Petersen isaid : thd advantage, of casein wl>ey oyer cheese whey was that.the former con- 1 tained albumen. ' I That in Denmark they fed. thpirj calves ] 3n the early stage's -with 50,' per cent, i whey, otherwise on.wy sjniilaif)eoudi- | tions as pertained here. ■■ I That!oo per cent, of the Danish sup- , pliers left their skim milk at the-factory for casein and the greater, proportion of the balance would be fiold .for; Jiumfn Wso. : ' . 't ' ; , : ; . '.' :j.|-'i '..! , i'l',' ' That the cost of" production'': r vas<-£t. hut owing to higlier ; wi\ge3 .a,nd ; o{,l}pr conditions would probably, cp.st £6: to £7 here. i ■.,.■:

That 8000 gallons of mjlk, were refluir,-. cd to make-a "ton of dry casein,, there be-. in<? 3 per cent, roughly' of ■ ca,sein. ,in milk. . / ,-, ,:,- That pasteurisation took the process of making; the work was done before other work, in the, factory started.

That fuel was a very small item: in most cases the boilers now in use we-re of sufficient capacity to cope- with, the extra work. That the Danes railed the green article much further than the distance from Waitara to Aramoho. but their, conditions and facilities were better.

That green casein would keep for .several days under the present mode o. manufacture. , .. That the casein made from the Midhirst factory was quite equal to anythin.: lie had seen in Denmark, if no. better. That he thought the host system factories could adord in disposal was to sell half and consign the other half. . That he knew of manufacturers that used from 2000 to 3000 tons annually. That the present value was £27 to £2B per ton. and he had every reason to think that both the demand and price would increase. . That there was no chance of flooding the market. . . That the Danish system which he had learned and the department was prepared to impart to the factories was not patented, and ihat it was almost impossible to make anythine but the best quality Vr the use of that system That there were a number of large buyers for the product. Lehman ami yoss. of Hamburg, being perhaps the largest in Ihis respect. Tint the crvading would be made ov the Department and grade notes accepted just the same as butter and cheese. , ii -it-n,;,--( Mr. Brown, chairman of the Mclhufactorv. on renucst. stated that he had bonr. ..n V;1f .t,.,l to the manufacture o casein for a ycrv lon* time, having read purposes. The Midhirst factory esblljsl,!,l H,e imbHn- h.=t week. IT, haso oft on herd of v„L"ie statements ot the amount of money made by snm<> f ;lvm ,rs out of calves and pnrs. but Piter ~ v ,,v.- Ion" evii..rience he had to confess' that he could not do the snme. ami had come to the conclusion that eas,,.i was a better proposition, and felt that tie industry must grow. They w cautions before going to a larpc »>- pemliture, and had simply erected a pie-

eipitation plant at the main factory. With the other directors lie had made a canvas of suppliers willing to accept the casein conditions., the result being that 50 out of 73 agreed to give it a trial. Since then quite a number of other who stood off were desirous of coming in, and the increase meant that they had to instal another vat, and in the meantime they could only deal with the product from the first acceptors of the proposal. They were treating 2000 gallons per day at present, and, as had been stated by Mr. Pedersen, were making a first-class article, samples of which he handed round for inspection. He believed that Midhirst had the very best precipitating plant in the Dominion, and the cost of it would be under £4OO. It was of concrete and iron, absut the size of the hall they were in, had room for six vats, and if the casein market did fail and cheese was a better proposition the building and presses could be used for the purpose needed. Those who came into the scheme did so on condition that all the milk they supplied was left foT casein manufacture, with a modification in the sriring to meet calf rearing in the early stages should it seem necessary. So far he had seen no difference in his pigs since being fed on the whey, and felt convinced that be could get a better return from casein than from pig and calf rearing. So far as he could say suppliers were quite satisfied with the proposal. The casein whey apparently kept sweet for a long period, much longer than skim milk. An extra hand was required at the factory to cope with the additional work. Payment was made to suppliers at the rate of one penny farthing per pound on butterfat produced, and a. satisfactory arrangement made with the Aramobo Company for the purchase of the green '. article. Mr. Klecman, the manager, said that it required two barrow loads of wood for steam purposes to treat the supply received at the factory, so that the cost of fuel was a very small matter. He would be pleased, to show the process of manufacture to anyone interested if they came along, and was only tort will- ' ing to give all the information he could ]

i oTi the subject. ! After a conversational discussion, the • meeting 1 adjourned until after lunch, j when representatives of the Casein Company met directors and went into the ' ,matter relative to erection of plants and ] price of the product. i Votes of thanks were passed to Mr. Pedersen and the Casein Company;, and the meeting adjourned. [ As a result of the above meet- \ irijj 'several factories in the district are ' taking immediate steps to hold meet- J 1 irigs of suppliers with a view to placing ' the' additional information before them 1 with a view to ascertaining whether the I directors will be authorised to take the I '. necessary steps to erect precipitation | ,• plants this season so that a trial can be j I made at a minimum of expense, and i j there seems every probability that in i some cases six weeks will see green case- j 1 in railed on to Aramaho for manufac- j I ture. I

j' A 'calculation has been made by one j factorv.as to' what additional on butter-fat for December would have J meant'to 'suppliers, and was found to '■run into ,the handsome sum of £297 18s j'lfi.' 'snis "surely : would have been very j acceptable to supplies as an addition to J. the ordinary milk cheque for the purJ chase,' of skim tnilk for casein manufac- ] tiire. '. "'■' '' .