MAKING OF CHEESE.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 August 1922, Page 7

MAKING OF CHEESE.

QUESTION of TAUT SKIM INZERESTING EXPERIMENTS. An instructive address on the question of having a standardised milk for the manufacture of cheese was given at the annual meeting of the Hawera Dairy Company on Saturday, by y;r. j. b. Laurenson, one of the directors, «no has had considerable experience In cheese-making, and has been keenly interesting himself in the experiments. He said :—■ "Suppliers know that our tests are getting higher every year owing to improvements iu our herds <.ae to ( -< )W testing, culling, and the popularity of the high testing Jersey cow. In high testing milk the fat content is too high for the aniotpi-t of solids in the milk, and a great loss takes places in cheese-making as a consequence. No one knows where this increasing of tests will end. for the Government encourages the high production cow, and Jerseys axe the predominating breed. Year by year the tests get higher and the yield for cheese-nuking lower. Let us take, for instance, the months of September, October and November. The average test is about 3.3 •and the yield is about 2.80 pounds of cheese from one pound of butter-fat, whilst from. Christanas on,. the test increases to 4 per cent, and over, and the yield counes down to 2.50 pounds of cheese from one pound of but-ter-fat. To iny mind we have been making a fool’s cheese, when we consider that we have been getting no more money for the cheese with the high butter-fat content than the cheese with the low fat content. It is all sold under the wide description, 'full cream cheese.’

“I say we should set our standard test for cheese-making at the standard set by the Board of Health for town supply of inilk, namely 3.25. and surely what is good enough for our children Is good enough for cheesemaking. Questions may be asked as to quality. Well, the cheese would be branded as standard cheese, and no one would be permitted to skim lower than the Board of Health 3.25. The factory would be open to inspectors who could rome in and take & sample at aoy time, just as a milkman Is stopped in the street at any time and n sample of milk taken for Inspection purposon. I mnr say that I do not believe it possible to tell the difference between cheese made form milk containing 3.25 per cent, of fat and cheese made from milk containing 4 per cent, of fat, even by an expert. When whey butter was first, made the hue and cry was raised that it would spoil the reputation of pure creamery butter, but. T ask you has it done so? If we sell our produce by grade we get its value, and no more because one particular line of cheese In the same grade happens to contain more accordingly. That being so, the making of part skim cheese and the sellnig of it branded as such both on the crate and on the cheese Itself cannot detrimentally affect the reputation of our produce. The gouda (that is a part skiiin cheese made in Holland and branded with its fat content) is selling at Home now at nine pence per pound.

"It is a great pity we have not a laboratory in New Zealand for research work. We can only with the greatest difficulty tell the but-ter-fat and moisture content of our cheese, and until we sell a standard cheese we will ilever have justice. Your directors, after careful consideration, decided to experiment in connection with and with the full approval of the Dairy Division of the Department of Agriculture, to try and save some of the fat that was not being paid for in the cheese owing to the high tests. A start was made at Wjhareroa on January 1, 1322. Although the first shipment was not up to subsequent makes as regard quality, yet it showed a good margin of profit over full cream cheese by the same steamer. Later makes have been very good, grading being as high as 28 out of the possible 3(1 points for make allowed in the grading of full cream cheese. We were so well pleased with the cheese made that, we decided to try as much part skim cheese as our butter plant, would allow. We will be in a better position now that we have got the new butter room at the Glover Road factory. If we. had had the new butter room last year we would have been in a position to have paid another one penny per pound butter-fat. “ As it is we have sold butter to the value of £5300 taken from part skim cheese made. We have made 1800 crates of part skim cheese. Sales to date are 350 crates, and assuming experiment, would show a profit over full cream cheese of six pence per pound but-ter-fat on the total butter-fat concerned, or over one farthing per pound butter-fat on the total butter-fat concerned, or over one farthing per pound butter-fat over the whole season’s supply. The results are most encouraging so far, and fully justify the careful furthering of the objective your directors have in view. Nothin? will be done nrecipitatedly." The address evoked a little discussion. Mr. Death did not consider that a report by one of the directors should be put forward : a report on such an important question should have come from the Dairy Division. The chairman said that this was really research work that the Government should have undertaken, but the Hawera Dairy Company had undertaken it under the supervision of the department. Mr. Singleton (director of the Dairy Division) had asked him to make the results public. Personally, he knew nothing about the manufacture of cheese, and Mr. Laurenson, who had had experience, had undertaken to conduct the experiments. The directors were actuated in an endeavor to obtain better results for the producer, and they were justified in doing so. Mr. McKenzie did not see why the manufacture of part skim milk cheese should be condemned. Some people were opposed to it because it had not the sanction of the Farmers’ Union, to which many people did not belong. They had to cater to meet the demands of those who could not afford to buy the highest quality article. Mr. Laurenson said there were people at Home who could not buy the best article and consequently bought the next best, where they could get more for their money. Part skim cheese had been sold in London for years, just as margarine was sold. He pointed out that they did not get paid for a good deal of the fat that went into the cheese. Mr. Death did not object to the principle adopted by the Hawera Dairy Company, but he stressed the ixiint that they must be jealous of the quality of their produce. Indeed, it had been recently stated by an agent that if Now Zealand could attain the same high quality for its cheese as it had gained for its butter it would have nothing to fear. Mr. Corrigan said that it was his firm opinion that in 10 years the whole of the milk in New Zealand would be standardised; in fact, he would defy any but an expert to tell the difference between whole and part skim milk cheese. Mr. Batten,* who was appealed to by the chaininan, stated he had sampled part skim cheese two months old which was a lot better than some whole milk cheese. In reply to questions the chairman said that they wei-e in the experimental stage and did not have the correct formula at the start, part milk cheese requiring a different formula from whole milk cheese. In the early stages it was not all up to the standard, but now they were getting practically full points for The manager (Mr. Bowman) said that the graders now could find little difference in the body between part skiin milk and whole milk cheese. One grader informed him that he would’defy any man to tell the difference. At the start their grade had been second, but the difficulty was that the department was not in a position to give any assistance at the start. Replying to Mr. McKenzie, Mr. Bowman said that the whole of the Dairy Division was interested in the experiment, and he thought they were satisfied with the results. Mr. Singleton had said that more fat could be taken out of the milk if desired. He explained th’Jt they only skimmed a portion of the milk and kept well above the limit as far ns fat. was concerned. He pointed out that part SK’.mmed cheese would carry 10 per cent, more moisture than whole milk. Mr. asked what reports had been fbceived from the'lot of skim milk cheese >hat had been ftent Home. The secretary replied that at first thrir agents (Messrs. Lane and Co.) had not been satisfied ‘ftlth the skim milk cheese and had advised tht>m to discontinue it, and after the first shipment had arrived Home they had repeated the advise. Since then the reports

had improved. Of the various that had been sent Home the first hrqyght 565, as against whole milk! cheese ?4s, while other shipments realised 545, as 72s 6d; 545, as against 70s; 61s, as against 82s 6d; and the last and biggest shipment 70s 9(1, as against 91s. It showed * profit and on the same relative difference between the values of part skim! and whole milk cheese on the whole of the 1400 crates yet to be disposed ef, there would be a profit of 6d per pound on the qqantilY fap thfi purpose, or Is 4d per pound butter-fat over the whole season. There were complaints about the of the egrlek mhWb Air. Laurent was not against the proposal provided |t provpd a payable nrfinopitifip, but he doubted whether the extra butter ‘ made would compensate for the la«s ’*) choose made. The chairman said that the diFfifitfirs w^re amongst the biggest suppliers and were out 1° manage the factory economically and make it pay. If the manufacture of part skim oheese did qqt »ay they would havp discontinued it. The first lot, which had proved so successful, showed a profit of 17s per cwt., and since then there had been: an Improvement in the unake. The Dairy Department had given them every assistance while the matter was in an experimental stage, and the manager now had the correct formula. Mr. Laurenson quoted figures showing that 500 lb of milk testing 4.7 produced 58 lb of pheese, whilst the same amount of milk If skimmed down to 4.0 test would produce 50 lb of cheese, and if down to 3.0 would produce 47 lb, so that as between a 4.0 test and 3.0 test there was only a difference of 3 lb of cheese and an extra 5 lb of butterfat. * Mr. Laurent considered it unfortunate that saflnpleq had not been brought to the meeting. The chairman said that samples had been taken up to Inglewood to the Farmers' Union conference, but the conference* would not look at them. If shareholders liked they would ga to the factory and sample the cheese. Mr. Death. asked how it was, If the experiment had been so successful, that the company had not been able to pay out as much as a neighboring factory. The clialrman stated that the Hawera company worked on safe lines and did not pay out what they had not received. Tito matter wm then dropped.