FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 November 1919, Page 10

FARM AND DAIRY.

DRIED MILK INDUSTRYSpeaking of the prospects of the dried milk industry, Mr. W. Goodfellow (managing director of the New Zealand Dairy Association and Waikato , Co-operative Dairy Co.), at a meeting of suppliers interested in the erection of a new dried milk factory at Hamilton, said that when they put the position before the suppliers two years ago they stated that the position was such at the time as to enable them to pay Ss-fld per lb. Since then the price had come down to £l3O per ton, and it would be safe to say they would be able to make a net payment of Us per lb for the next four years, not allowing for share deductions. Dried milk, he said, was in increasing demand The company had received several very encouraging cablegrams containing an offer to take 5000 tons for five years on the stated This would mean the output of •25.000. cows, and as one firm was prepared to take this amount it did-not appear as though there would lie anv immediate over-pro-duction. The business was as vet but Tonng. and they knew perfectly well they had much to learn, but it was safe to forecast that dried milk would be more profitable than any other product they were handling.

DAIRYING IN AUSTRALIA. Questioned as to the possibilities of Australia as a dairying country. Mr. F. r T. Nhtlmn said to the Manawatu Times that so far they were only on the fringe of the business, which should have a great future before it. The principal dairy districts are in Victoria, where the results obtained are astonishing to a New Zealander. This part, which has been untouched by drought since 1014, has an absolutely dependable rainfall, and is equal to any dairy country in the Dominion. The industry is carried on under Saltogethor different conditions to those in New Zealand, milking being carried on both winter and summer, and factories receiving fully a third of the milk in the winter of what they do in the summer months. One district, Killarnev, is extremely fertile. It has a pure black soil quite distinct from any Mr. Nathan has seen in New Zealand. The district is noted for onion-growing. The land is seldom sold, generally being handed down from generation to generation, but it is occasionally leased. One lot of 11 acres brought in £33 per acre per annum. It has been sold for as high r.s £OO per acre. Nearly all the cows in that district are of the Ayrshire strain. Some trf the larger factories in the districts harrdle 50,000 gallons of milk in a day. Nestles people operate in some of the districts. No individual test of the milk is taken in their factories but the whole ; is bulked and the farmer paid out on ■ the general test. The firm does not : allow suppliers to milk with machines. ]