DAIRY PRODUCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 January 1921, Page 4

DAIRY PRODUCE.

SHORTAGE OF SHIPPING SPACE. FARMERS TO PAY FOR GRADING. Some difficulty is being experienced in finding sufficient insulated shipping space for the quick removal of cheese now coming into grading ports in heni \ volume (says a special message from Wellington to the Hawera Star). The production of both butter and cheese was heavy up to within ten days or a week age, when the effects of the long spell of dry weather were beginning to tell. The coming of rain should be followed by full supplies of milk to the factories. . In order to help the dairying industry in its early days and to ensure the export of both butter and cheese of the highest quality, a system of compulsory grading was instituted. Millions of pounds* worth of business is done on the grade notes of Govern ■ment graders, who are responsible to no one but their official chiefs. The cost of this service to the dairy farmers in particular was borne by the Dominion as a whole. It is now to be paid for by the dairy factories. Great benefit has resulted to the dairying industiv through the grading of butter and cheese. The charge for grading wil! be by levying an imprest of Id per box on butter and one penny and a third per crate on cheese. The gradings for tho twelve months ended December 31 were 251,158 boxes of butter and 214.757 cwts. of cheese. This produce would have given a return to the Government for grading services of approximately £1650 to £l7OO per annum.