DAIRY INDUSTRY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 May 1940, Page 7

DAIRY INDUSTRY

STAGE OF STAGNATION REACHED POSITION A NATIONAL MENACE. ADDRESS BY MR R. A. CANDY. (“Times-Age” Special.) Aii interesting address concerning the position of the dairy industry was given by the chairman of the Hord Recording Council of the New Zealand Dairy Board, Air R. A. Candy, at the district ward conference of the dairy industry held at Carterton veslerday.

It was generally appreciated that they had reached a stage of stagnation. in fact almost of retrogression, in so far as -the efficiency of their dairy stock was concerned stated Mr Candy. It was at a level so far below that of our chief competitor on the English market that it constituted a definite menace ot the standard of living of all those engaged in the industry. It also constituted a national menace. They had in effect failed to produce goods to the value of £28,000,000 during the past four years, so as to allow them nationally to live within their incomes. Finance had been made available equally by the Government and industry to adopt systems that would enable them nationally to slowly but steadily increase production per cow to a level more in line with that of their great competitors. There was a basic recognition of the fact that disease problems in dairy herds were having a marked effect on their capabilities for increased production, said Mr Candy, but there was little reliable data to work on. What] data they had came from certain of] the herd testing associations then in operation, but the collection of that all-important information cost money, and the fact remained that the organisations in general did not have the money with which to do the work, nor were they as constituted set up to do this work. The fact that the organisations had an essential touch with the farming community resulted in the enlargement of the original scope of work from purely herd testing associations to that of general herd improvement organisations. A technical department had also been set up, among the varied activities of the department being 'the work on (1), the effect of production on disease incidence; (2) investigations into incidence of sterility in various districts; (3) effect of calving period on production; (4) hereditary aspects of certain diseases; (5), tabulation of causes of herd wastage on a percentage basis; (6), investigation into thej ability of the sires in the industry to leave daughters as good as their dams. To see that the information amassed by the department was brought straight back to the farmer, the Dairy Board had appointed six consulting officers, whose function was to pass the information on per the medium of Farmers' Union meetings, Young Farmers’ clubs, secondary schools and by personal contact with individual farmers.

“Broadly speaking, that is, the general framework of the organisation,” stated Mr Candy. "It is a problem of great magnitude and will not be solved in one or two years; nevertheless I consider that the basic approach is sound, and given a five or 10 year period should yield results to the industry and to this country that will show a handsome profit dividend on the outlay expended.” There was also another matter of prime importance to the industry as a result of the above scheme, Mr Candy continued. That was the assessing of the effective average production per cow. This was something quite new within the industry, brought about as a result of the guaranteed price procedure. Effective production per cow was the butterfat or butterfat equivalent for which the farmer received remuneration. On the average farm it was the butterfat cow for which he received payment from the factory after house milk, calf milk and separator loss had been met. To get this figure accurately it would be necessary for all farmers other than licensed dairymen to give an annual return of the number of cows milked on January 15. To this figure a formula would be applied which would give the estimated correct number of cows used for dairying for the season. This figure would then be divided into the amount of butterfat produced by these cows as per the dairy companies’ returns, and the result would be the effective production per cow. The reason for finding this figure was to ensure that any, future improvement in efficiency was not capitalised for the benefit of the State, but would be retained by the farmer to allow him a higher standard of living, concluded Mr Candy.