DAIRY PRODUCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 July 1922, Page 12

DAIRY PRODUCE.

DENMARK'S PRICE FIXING. “A very important and interesting institution in connection with the sale of butter in Denmark is the Copenhagen Butter Quotation,” says Mr. J. A. Ruddieh,.::Dairy Commissioner for Canada, who i<j. well-known in New Zealand . ..Quotation Committee was liret appointed in 1894.” says-Mr. Ruddich in a Wisconsin journal. It consists of ten or 'tvre-lve. membera selected from the 'various .interests of the trade, and a chairman who is not connected with the “industry in any way. Before the war this - committee functioned as follows: It -met every Thursday to study the situation, and to.fix a quotation for the-.fol-~ lowing week. The practice was to take •the actual prices being paid in England* and Germany and to correct these by •what was. termed ‘the feeling of the -market.’ If the market was strong, something was added to the actual price in fixing .the quotation. If it were weak, the quotation was dropped accordingly. Conakieration was also given to reports as to supply and demand in the various markets. When the committee reached

a decision the quotation was immediately published in the Danish newspapers and cabled to the Press in England. . “The quotation received wide publicity generally throughout Scandinavia, the United Kingdom, and Germany, and had a very: important influence on the butter market in all these countries. It was not only a guide to the trade, but it gave information to both producers and consumers as to what the actual difference was between the price which one paid and the other received. It had the effect of placing all the cards on the table. There was, of course, nothing binding on merchants to pay prices on a level with the quotation, and frequently, as competition dictated, they paid what was called an ‘over price.’” REGULAR MILKING. Commence milking at the same hour night and morning, and milk the cows in the same order. Never wet the hands with milk. A practice, to be recommended is rubbing a little vaseline on the hands. This -keeps the teats in nice condition. and overcomes the objection some have to milking with dry hands. Always milk the udder out clean. Remove the milk as soon as possible from the shed, and immediately strain through several thicknesses of cheese-cloth and cool.

RUGGING COWS. Though rugging is a practice of solid value, it must be done properly. To put a rug on a cow at the beginning of winter, and to allow it to remain there for several months, is almost useless. Under such conditions/the cow swelters during the warm hours of the day, and her natural resistance to the cold is reduced so that she is more liable to its effect at night. Under the cover her coat becomes finer, and her skin unhealthy and itchy, and sometimes even harbors lice. She*is actually penalised by her rug during the daj’, and she derives little or no advantage from it at night. The life of the rug, too, suffers by this treatment, for it is continually damp, and the irritated animal, rolling on it, soon wears it out. On the other hand, if the cover is removed during the day, the coat thickens up under the cool temperatures of the winter weather, and the cow feels the full advantage of it when it is on in the evening. The skin, too, is kept clean, for the cow is able to roll during the day and to lick herself, and the rug, being hung up for a few hours, dries off and sweetens, and any necessary repairs can be effected before the damage becomes too extensive.

It is not generally known that Mr. John Studholme, well-known in Canterbury, is doing a lot of solid work in London to establish markets for New Zealand produce (says an exchange). He is a member of the Board of British Producers. At a meeting of the Canterbury Egg Circle it was stated that Mr. Studholme had gone to no end of trouble to establish a trade for New Zealand eggs. He had put in weeks of solid work, and would not accept a penny for his services.

“Honestly, as one who has a stake in our dairying industry, I am losing all patience with the farmers of the Dominion,” remarked a gentleman well versed in butter circles to a Manawatu Standard representative recently. “The burden of my complaint is the fact that during the last few weeks he suppliers to many factories have lest thousands of pounds through their lack of organisation, in selling their butter to buyers at prices considerably below what it was, and still is, worth on the London market.” The informant added that shrewd representatives of produce export houses, apparently anticipating an advance in values, had, a day or so prior to the hews of the recent sensational rise in prices circulating throughout the Dominion, scoured the back country districts and bought up the output of numerous factories at the rate of Is 2d and Is 3d per lb, and in some cases a few pence higher. Not being posted as to the latest developments on the market, they accepted the offers referred to. No sooner had the contracts to sell been signed than the news of butter selling at well over 220 s per cwt. leaked out. The consequence was that in some cases it was the speculators and not the New Zealand producers who were reaping the benefit of the increased value of the Dominion’s butter. All of this, he commented, pointed to the absolute necessity of the dairy farmers •sinking their differences of opinion and evolving some scheme for improving the means of marketing their produce. A dairyman, speaking to the agricultural reporter of the Southland News, put the position of the man on the land in-quite a novel way. “Unfortunately,” he said, “the cow has only four teats. One of them I have to milk for the shipping ring, one for the crowd that collects the other charges on the cheese from the time it leaves our factoy till it is sold in London, one to pay for the cost of manufacture, and the remaining teat provides mo and my family with a bare existence.” Bran is one of the very best foods for dairy cattle. It combines many' virtues [for whieh it is difficult to substitute other ; feeds. Bran is bulky, being composed iof the outer kernels of wheat. It is extremely’ palatable, and because of this .palatability and bulkiness, it has a cool- ; ing effect on the system. A little bran placed in luke-warm watet acts as a fine tonic and conditioner soon after freshening.