TURNIP FEEDING.
ITS EFFECT ON BUTTER. 10very tuilumn factory managers and directors in Taranaki are faced with tiie problem of turnip feeding to cows supplying the factories. When grass begins to become scarce farmers adopt the practice of feeding on turnips. This increases the yield of milk, but it has a deleterious effect on the butter manufactured, leaving a flavor which can be 'eliminated for the time being by the pasteuriser, but which develops' very strongly after, the butter has been stored a month or two. Opportunity was taken at the meeting of suppliers of the Moa Dairy Co. on Saturday to sound a note of warning. The chairman remarked that during the last month there had been considerable discussion over the turnip question and its effect on milk. A supplier: I have been feeding on turnips for three months and no one is a bit the wiser. Mr. Yeates suggested that the director* should consider allowing turnips to be fed in limited quantity from January Ist under icstrieted conditions. A voice. It would be. impossible to fix a limit. Factories elsewhere have allowed turnip feeding and it has not made much difference. Mr. Ross, the factory manager, said that very few farmers realised the grave langer of indiscriminate turnip feeding. For years past they had been I installing machinery for the purpose of improving the grade of their butter With the freezer and the pasteuriser they were now in a position to turn out a really first-class article provided they obtained good quality milk. They had been gradually building up a reputation on the London market, and to-day experts affirmed that the best New' Zealand butter was without doubt 'he finest they handled. •It had taken years to earn this reputation, years of labor, study and low prices. Now they were reaping the benefit of past labors and were at the top of the ladder it behoved them to guard the quality very jealously. One shipment of second quality butter on the London market would probably undo what had been striven for for years past to attain. One way they were going to ruin the reputation was by turnip feeding. A lot was heard about home-separated cream ruining the quality of the butter, but past experience has'been that with the pasteuriser they could eliminate almost any flavor, but that of turnips. This could not be got rid of, and the longer the butler ,vas kept the more the flavor developed. As it took from six weeks to» two months before butter made here was placed on the London market, butter in which it would be diflicult to find a trace of turnip could easily lave a vtrong flavor when it was opened at London. Considering that there were rienty of \arieties of green fodder which would not taint milk, it would be no hardship on farmers if they were absolutely barred from feeding' their herds on turnips during the export season. As to reeding on turnips through the winter, some suppliers had the idea that it did not matter what class of butter was turned jut for the local market. That was a very great mistake. Inglewond butter was known all over New Zealand, and he had been supplied with instances where merchants hail been instructed to offer a half-penny per lb more for it than for oilier brands. Were they going to spoil their reputation by the indiscriminate feeding on turnip's? He did not say (hat farmer-, should not feed at all on turnips, after the export season, but Hie farmer who turned his cows on turnips and left them there all day was a menace to the company. He would like to see the farmers in the district endeavor to grow other green feed. Some farmers held the opinion that the soft white pulp turnip did not taint milk. This did not bear out his experience.
The address was most attentively listened to, and at its conclusion, a little discussion ensued, one farmer advocating the claims of maize, which could be grown to a height of 10 and 12ft in Inglewond.
?,Ir. Hunt pointed out that the Articles of Association prohibited tlie feeding of turnips, and before it could lie allowed, they would have to be altered. That some suppliers were feeding on turnips was evident from the fact that the March butter was badly tainted with turnip flavor. It was intended to store this for shipment Homo, but owing to the taint they had to get rid of it here at a lower price. The only safe remedy was to prohibit, and ho suggested that next year notice should be sent to all suppliers, before the time for turnip sowing, pointing out that turnips could not be used,for dairy cattle.
Mr. Yeatos claimed thai turnips could safely be fed in moderation. If carted out they did not taint the milk, but if cattle were turned indiscriminately on them the butter would be tainted. The chairman affirmed that but for turnips their March butter would have realised tore.
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Taranaki Daily News, 10 April 1916, Page 3
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841TURNIP FEEDING. Taranaki Daily News, 10 April 1916, Page 3
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