WOES OF THE BUTTER-MAN.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 July 1920, Page 9

WOES OF THE BUTTER-MAN.

"A HAED ROW TO HOE." WITH LAND AT HIGH PRICE. In addressing the annual meeting of suppliers of tlie New Zealand Co-Oper-ative Dairy Company, Limited, Mr. A. J J. Sinclair, assistant manager, at Hamilton last week, submitted figures which he said showed that the butter suppliers had a hard row to hoe at the price now being received for their produce. One typical instance was of a man who wa9 a practical farmer milking 54 cows on 160 acres, a portion of which was in scrub. The Government Valuation was £BIOO, and there was a mortgage of £3OOO. The only charge this farmer debited against his farm for himself was sij v ' per cent 'on Lis equity. He kept his accounts accurately, and the following wa3 a summary which lie prepared on the assumption that lie would receive about Is Hi! a pound for his butter fat. The receipts were: Butter fat £1)94, calves and pigs £230, total £924. The expenditure was: Rates and insurance interest on mortgage £ll7, six per cent on equity £IBO, feed and foodstuffs £94, one man's wages £l6O, repairs antr maintenance £23, freights and cartage £32, manures, sacks, etc., £94; horse-shoeing find sundries £2l; total £S2(i. That meant that the farmer wSs left with ' £9B for the services of himself, his wife and three children, all helping ill the milking. ■ The man worked from daylight to dark, and his wife had broken down through overwork. He was only able to make both ends meet by the fact that he bought his farm ten years ago when the price was much bolow the present Government valuation. That case, said Mr. Sinclair, was typical of many others, and it was a mystery how the dairy farmers paid £SO and £oo an acre for his land and was able to make a success at the present prices he received for his- butter.