DAIRY FARMERS' TROUBLES.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 February 1918, Page 6

DAIRY FARMERS' TROUBLES.

l'u the Editor. Sir, —The writer wishes to ask tliu eisy-going duiry farmer (not the big director, partly retired, who can linance himself along for a while) if ho Knows that instead of him being able, to get part only of his hard earned milk cheque eaeh lnontli that the time i.» very close when he will have to do without even getting any at all, since the position of finance in the dairy business is being allowed to drift. First of all the output of cheese has been sold to the Government at lOd per lb, which looks simply lovely on paper, just like the 50 per cent, profit which the butter factories are going' to receive after it is squeezed through a barhwlrc entanglement. The Government bought the output at lfld per U) Sir. Masscv and Mr. Morton did all the business last November. Since then the great working arrangement between the Government and the factories lias been printed, which took some months to hand to the factories, the contents being marked "confidential." It is therefore all the more important that they receive the whole of the amount, and they fully expect to do so. As the cheese is also going through a barb wire entanglement, liow is it going to pan out compared with the price of !)M of last year? The factories this year out of this lOd pei lb have to pay insurance on the cheese while it is lying in cool store. This costs £1 per ton or just on %d per lb of butter fat gone, so that'the factory can draw from the Government or the purchaser of the cheese 90 per cent, of the value on the express condition that the chfcse is stored in the Freezing Works as this building is the one approved of to keep the cheese in good condition until shipment. Plainly factories having cheese stored in the Taranaki oil relinery shed and insured to the full value cannot draw

two pence from the Government on the cheese, and Hie hanks will not advance anything on tiie cheese while it is stored in any di ner place but the one approved. This looks healthy for Tar.inakl. As luost dairymen who read the paper must remember much lias in the last twelve muni lis been said about increasing tliu storage mom. What has the result been? The Taranakl Producers' Freezj ing Company enlarged their works, put live or six chambers on, and they are in the splendid position to accommodate one (|iiarfer only of the cheese that la i being made at the factories to-day. As l.he directors did not wake up until the •season was well started factories have to stack their cheese in their own curing room-, and wait until the chambers are finished ajjd ready to receive only n quarter of the make of each factory. The dairy farmer therefore can expect to he able to draw a quarter of his milk cheque very soon, and take a peep at the three-quarters' of his cheese as balance through the window in his factory curing room. ]t may be that, a factory has a big overdraft at a bank, "tt bile that lasts he may get the other three-quarters of his milk cheque, but the interest on the overdraft is going perhaps to cost him another y 4 il on his (Hitter fat, and then he has lost >/°d between feeding the bank and insurance companies. But is this all? 1 am afraid lie has to pay a bit more yet. Here are further losses. Instead of cheese being weighed by the purchaser, three-quarters of it will not be weighed until it is 42 days old. By that time factories will find that the loss in weight is going t be a big item. If only three lbs je crate it will be £2 per ton at least, with the per cent- shrinkage allowance. Another Vid off butter fat. Then there is the extra handling of the cheese in the factories, which costs something And fifty other items, all eating awa' at that 10d per lb. Here are a few items: Common cheese salt £5 to £ll per ton. now £ls to £2O; cheese cloth, -Id per yard, now !)d pet yard; one cwt. of nails, 1 its to 25=, now SOs ease; wire ISs cwt., now 4.1s cwt.; pepsin, l!)s per lb, now 355; cheese color, 10s gallon,

now 30sj firewood £1 3s cord. now i'.'-' Ms; c'leesc on lis :>os, now Ms; railway freights 10 per cent, on this year; labor worse than ever and still going up; rennctl win not be got. The dairy farmer bus to t hunk the .Hoard of Trade for keeping down price.-,; llio delegates from llm farturie.; who got the big price for the cheese mid drafted that working agreement to [iroteet them; their own l'nv/.injr company for so ably providing storage for their cheese, so that they can gel no milk '.•ltcquu.s, if there are no ships, and sleep soundly when not milking the cows, without worrying about the business end of the stick. So it will be seen thut |he hi'rd working dairyman is not getting all the plums out of the tiig pudding—i am, etc.,

OXIS OF THE PUSH, Midhirst, February 18, 191 S.