THE DAIRY INDUSTRY IN NEW ZEALAND (REPORT ON).

Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1887 Session II, H-01

1

Sess. 11.—1887. NEW ZEALAND.

THE DAIRY INDUSTRY IN NEW ZEALAND (REPORT ON).

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

Dubing the last year or two attention has been largely drawn to the growing importance of the dairying industry in the colony, and during 1885 the production of butter and cheese received great stimulus from the heavy demand in New South Wales for these articles, owing to the lengthened drought in Australia lessening their own supply to such an extent that the price rose to an exceptional height there, greatly to the benefit of New Zealand butter-makers, who for the time being received good prices for all qualities of butter. The quantity exported was very large, exceeding that of the previous year (which had hitherto been the largest) by 51 per cent, in value and over 53 per cent, in quantity, thus showing in a startling manner how readily our farming population can increase their production of an article for which there is a strong demand even at short notice. There is no doubt that the soil and climate of a large extent of both Islands are wonderfully well adapted for carrying on dairying in all its branches, and has numerous advantages over those of other countries, as our climate is not so vigorous as to make it absolutely necessary to house stock during the winter, nor do we suffer from protracted droughts like our neighbours in Australia, and the grass. of our pastures can be fed nearly all the year round. With all these natural advantages dairying is bound to exercise a large influence among the settlers, and, as the tendency appears to be towards the factory system in both butter- and cheese-making, a better and more even quality in the manufactured article will take place, to the advantage of both producer and consumer. In the Taranaki District especially, dairying is the general industry, and butter the staple product, and every farmer looks to his cows to yield him a return for his labour in the same w T ay that in other districts farmers depend on wool-, meat-, or grain-growing. Therefore, as might have been expected, a few of the more pushing and enterprising settlers are endeavouring to develop the dairy industry by improving the breeds of cattle and the adoption of the latest improvements in dairy plant. These gentlemen have introduced stock of the best milking breeds, such as Jerseys and Ayrshires, from other parts of the colony to cross with the ordinary run cow, usually of Shorthorn descent, and are also turning their attention to the use of the cream-separator in their dairies. This machine is rapidly becoming a, sine qua non to butter-makers in all countries, as not only is there a direct saving over other plans in gaining more cream from a given quantity of milk, much less space and plant wanted with less labour and greater cleanliness, and, above all, a better and more even quality of butter. There are several different machines in the market : that best known out here is the De Laval, of a size capable of separating about sixty gallons of milk per hour, by either steam-, horse-, or water-power, costing complete about £50 in New Zealand. The Lefeldt and Danish separators are also in use in the colony: several of the latter have, I believe, been imported to Taranaki this year for use in private dairies ; they are supposed to give more satisfactory results, and have gained prizes at competitions held in England. The latest improvement in these machines is the application of hand-power to a small one, and of steam to drive the large one direct from the boiler. The following is a description of each, taken from an Australian paper : "The hand separator is a new invention of Dr. De Laval, recently introduced into England by the Dairy Supply Association. This new hand-machine can be easily driven by one man. It separates thirty-five gallons of milk per hour much more perfectly than can be done by any setting process, and the price in England is £25. It is intended to enter this machine for the prize of £25 offered by the Eoyal Agricultural Society of England at their Newcastle meeting. Another novel machine has been introduced by the Dairy Supply Company. It is the first application of steam direct to the Laval separator, and no engine is required, although, of course, a boiler will still be necessary. A pipe of fin. diameter conveys a jet of steam from the boiler direct to the turbine, and is of sufficient power to impart the necessary speed to the separator, which is equal to six thousand revolutions per minute. We understand the Dairy Supply Company are adapting this form of motor to butter-churns and other implements requiring power in the dairy. Every dairy must have hot water and steam, but a steam-engine is a great expense, besides the trouble and skilled labour necessary to look after it, and it would be a great boon and a saving to be able todispense with steam - power altogether. The inclusive price of a turbine separator capable of

1—H. 1.

H.—1.

2

separating ninety gallons per hour is in England £46. This machine has not yet been exhibited at any show in Britain." This last-mentioned machine appears to be a great improvement on the original make, which required an engine with the necessary shafting, belting, and intermediate motion. This is dispensed with. The turbine is fitted to the opposite end of the spindle to the separating cylinder, and so gives the direct power. The price of this machine, with a capacity half as large again as those generally in use out here, seems very reasonable. The hand-power separator should prove of great benefit in small dairies, or to those who cannot go to the expense of setting up expensive plant. The dairymen' in New South Wales have within the last year or two recognised the ; necessity and advantage of using the separator, and have revolutionised the butter market in Sydney as regards the price paid for good quality. During last winter, when butter was selling freely at good prices, factory-made —that is, butter made from separated cream —was selling at sd. per pound above the price "obtained for special brands from private dairies of established reputation," and from Bd. to Is. above best New Zealand, and the factory-made butter has kept its advantage ever since. But the high prices received for butter last year have disappeared, and our dairy-farmers find glutted markets. The demand from Australia has ceased for the present, as the splendid season the farmers are enjoying there has enabled them to supply nearly all their own wants in dairy produce, bringing about such a collapse in prices that, together with the duty lately imposed by New South Wales, our principal market, the producers find little or no margin of profit after expenses are deducted, as the Sydney price controls that paid here by the dealer to the producer. During this present season stocks have been accumulating, and several large shipments have been made by the direct steamers to England, and, as I understand no extraordinary arrangements as to packing or storing the butter on board were made, it will be interesting and instructive to watch the result. The system of selling to dealers obtains largely on the west coast of the North Island, and those makers who have established any kind of reputation for uniformity or general quality of their butter contract to sell all they make for a certain period at a fixed price; but the majority of makers whose produce has not arrived at this stage of excellence sell at the best price thoy can obtain for each week's make. Other makers, again, prefer to risk the chance of meeting a good market, and ship on their own account: these are the large makers, and whose brands are well known in the market. The dealers buy large quantities in the course of the year. One carrying on business in New Plymouth bought over two hundred tons of butter during the year ending on the 30th September last, at a cost of about £18,000. The bulk of this was shipped to New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria. The butter is received by the merchants packed either in kegs holding between 701b. and 801b., made of tawa, or in boxes of all shapes or sizes. The salt butter is usually packed in the kegs, and fresh is made up in lib. or 21b. pats, each pat wrapped neatly in butter-cloth, and packed in cases varying from the humble soap-box to the patent enamel-lined boxes made by Pond, of Auckland, or Mofflin, of New Plymouth. The advantages claimed for these patent boxes are that they require no cleansing with lye or soaking with brine as the kegs do—they are ready to be packed at once ; that, being square, they take less room; do not allow the brine to soak through; that the enamel protects the butter from touching the wood, thereby preventing any taste. Pond's cases are fitted together with screws, while galvanized hoop-iron is used on the MofHin case. The butter can be easily taken out of these boxes for the , purpose of examination and returned, and the price is about the same as that of the kegs, but the latter, as a rule, hold a little more. A great deal of butter bought by the merchants is of a very poor quality, having many faults, often being streaky, made from cream that has been allowed to become over-sour and stale, badly worked with the butter-milk not sufficiently worked out, and overloaded with salt. It is impossible for the dealer to do much to improve this class of butter, but he has all these inferior lots well washed, put through the butter-worker, and repacked, and when a sufficient quantity of one quality is collected it is shipped off to one of the large markets; the better qualities are sometimes reworked and repacked also. The inferior class of butter is too frequently to be found, and is caused by ignorance of proper methods and carelessness on tha part of many of the makers. It is no uncommon thing to find, even on fairly well-appointed farms in other respects, the place used as a dairy a room in the dwelling-house, often next the kitchen, where such things as flour, sugar, and other articles of food, as well as tools of all kinds and seeds, are kept, besides being used as a workshop. Among some of the poorer settlers the milk-pans have been known to be set under the beds. Milk treated in this manner, exposed to all manner of odours and dust, cannot be expected to yield a high-class butter, as it is well known that nothing is more susceptible to a tainted atmosphere than milk, and the chances are that people who are careless in this manner will be quite as neglectful in the subsequent processes of churning and making up the butter. Writers on this subject are continually urging on dairymen the necessity for scrupulous cleanliness in all details of handling milk, and this is the point where the factories are likely to be more successful than the majority of private dairies, and is one of the reasons that butter made in factories is of a uniform character, for to be successful in this business, either as producer or exporter, an even quality in the article is essential: this is becoming so well recognised in England that the following extract on the subject from the Field of the 22nd January ultimo is worth quoting:— " That dairy interests should occupy a leading position in English agriculture is becoming generally recognised, as well as the fact that for some reason or other we are beaten in our own markets by the superior quality and greater uniformity of foreign produce. It is especially in this latter ■-characteristic that our principal deficiency is most apparent. Factors cannot depend upon the

3

H.—1.

make of butter from the same dairy, for example, being always alike ; consequently they are driven to deal with the foreigner, who, by some means or other, contrives to secure a uniform article. Now, we believe this is due to several causes : first, the greater attention paid to accuracy in minute details by the producer ; secondly, possibly greater cleanliness in handling; thirdly, to the fact that purveyors for the English market purchase the butter from the makers and work it up in large quantities, and so attain a standard of excellence which thus far English makers have failed to imitate. The consequence is that many of the largest consumers, and especially hotels, use Normandy and Swedish butter in preference to English makes. Eecently much has been done to disseminate sound knowledge of scientific processes, and this is bearing fruit and will do so increasingly. Butter-factories have been started in different places, and the result has been decidedly encouraging. Two years since we gave an example of a small enterprise in a Midland town which might encourage others to similar attempts, with great advantage both to the consumer and producer. In the case referred to a firm of grocers, who had previously purchased the butter from their country customers, found such frequent complaints on the ground of variable quality that they determined to purchase the milk from their agricultural friends, establish a town dairy, and see if they could not produce an article of uniform quality. So excellent is their make that they are able to charge 2d. per lb. above the ordinary rates; and so great is the demand for the separated milk that they are able to give a price for the milk that pays the farmer very much more than when he was the manufacturer. If such a system became general we should succeed in obtaining uniform quality, and growers would, in the neighbourhood of our large centres of population, not only be saved much domestic drudgery but realise far better prices for their produce. We are glad to know that during the last year several new butter-factories were started in different parts of England, while the indefatigable exertions of Canon Bagot are producing most valuable fruit in Ireland; so that we may confidently hope that this stigma on our management may shortly be removed, and that it may be possible to obtain from home producers a quality of butter as fine and constant as from foreign sources. There are other matters, connected with the quality of milk, that may affect the result. Food and water are most important considerations." Though Taranaki, according to the census returns of last year, only ranks fifth among the provinces in the annual amount of butter produced in the colony, the welfare of the industry is of the greatest importance to the settlers of that district, where every landowner is directly interested n the trade : in other parts of the colony it is more of a subsidiary character among farmers, and the butter is usually bought in small quantities by the storekeepers from their country customers at cheap rates when there is a large surplus to be disposed of in the spring and summer months; but the total production is very large, as shown by the last census returns. The following table, compiled from the census and annual statistics, will speak for itself : — Quantity. Value. lb. & Annual produce of butter, by census returns ... 12,170,964 ... 431,054 Amount exported, 1885 ' ... ... ... 2,791,367 ... 102,387 Amount exported, 1884 ... ... ... 1,765,792 ... 66,593 Amount made in butter-factories, 1885 ... ... 274,617 ... 1,649 Amount of butter exported from different ports, 1885 : — Cwt. £ Auckland ... ... ... ... ... 5,914 ... 29,421 Poverty Bay ... ... ... ... 47f ... 213 New Plymouth ... ... ... ... 3" ... 20 Wellington... ... ... ... ... ... 26,761 Napier ... ... ... ... ... 35 ... 180 Lyttelton ... ... ... ... ... 9,198 ... 33,129 Timaru ... ... ... ... ... 258 ... 1,081 Oamaru ... ... ... ... ... 495f ... 2,143 Dunedin ... ... ... ... ... ... 9,155 Invercargill ... ... ... ... 67 ... 235 Other ports ... ... ... ... 11 ... 49 24,923 £102,387 It will be observed that only 3cwt. of butter was exported from New Plymouth, that, of course, being owing to the want of shipping facilities at that time; and the returns for this season will, no doubt, tell a different tale, as several shipments have been made direct to Sydney, instead of sending them via Auckland or Wellington. The largest amount comes from Canterbury, its large farming population and the large area in Banks Peninsula devoted to dairying being the cause. The amount produced at butter-factories was insignificant compared to the grand total; but this wilt increase largely every year. This season, owing to the glut in the cheese-market, some of the cheese-factories have been making butter as well as cheese. The Moa Factory, at Inglewood, Taranaki, was the only butter-factory I have seen in work this season. The system is co-operative, shareholders only being allowed to supply milk, and a certain sum is deducted from the amount received from sales for working expenses, &c, before the price to be paid for milk is settled—no doubt a wise precaution, and one likely to prevent unpleasantness in such a year as this. In several large factories in the South a large reduction has had to be made quite recently in the price paid for milk on that paid at the beginning of the season. The two De Laval separators used in this factory, as well as the churn, are worked by steam, and the other fittings are very complete. The butter is packed in Pond's enamel-lined boxes, which are found

H.—l

4

to answer very well. The building is of wood, with a cool underground cellar used for working up the butter and storing cream in hot weather, situated in the centre of a good grazing-district, and within a quarter of a mile of the railway. The manager expected to receive at least 500 gallons per diem during the best part of the season. One of the first dairy farmers to recognise the benefits to be gained by the use of the separator was Mr. Breach, of Opunake, who set one up and increased his milking herd till now he has one of the largest in the district—numbering about a hundred and fifty milkers during this summer. The milk from these cows is separated by a De Laval machine worked by horse-power, which is also used to work the churn. All the calves are reared on the separated milk, and the method of feeding a large number is worth notice. The skim-milk is conveyed by pipes from the separator to a large tank in a yard adjoining the building in which the machine is situated; round this yard, and facing inwards, is a row of miniature cow-bails for the calves ; each bail is provided with a bucket and a floating feeder, made of a piece of wood about 4in. square, with a hole bored in the centre, and through it a false teat made of linen rag is fixed so as to protrude 3in. or 4in. on each side; these feeders are attached by a strong string to the side of the bails, and are put into each bucket at feeding-time, so that the calves suck the milk instead of drinking it; the advantage is that the young calves are found to take to this form of feeding much quicker and with far less trouble than by the ordinary way of teaching them to drink from the bucket. The idea of using bails for the calves must commend itself at once to dairymen, as each one gets its proper allowance of milk ; the small or weakly ones can thus be looked after more readily, with a great saving of time and labour. Another labour-saving appliance on this farm was an ingenious arrangement in the milking-shed, whereby the cows, after being milked and released from the bail, walk through the pen into another yard from where the unmilked cows stand. The right-hand side of each milking pen is a hurdle made to swing on a pivot in the centre of the bottom bar, so that when a cow has been milked the milkman releases the catch that keeps the hurdle in place, pulls the end to him, and the cow walks through the opening afforded. Milking herds of the size of Mr. Breach's are, of course, exceptional, the majority of the dairies varying from twelve to forty cows, and in these the shallow-pan system of raising cream is employed, and in some cases, where good management is used, with very satisfactory results. One farmer, who milks between thirty and forty cows, informed me he got an average annual return of £10 per head, which must be above the average, as he was able to command a good price for his butter, owing to its good quality; and his cows received more than the usual care, especially through the winter. As a rule, winter feeding is neglected in Taranaki, cattle being dependent on the pastures all the year round. Provision for wintering stock is made to a limited extent by growing roots and white crops for hay. A better system is needed generally in our method of dairying, to bring our produce up to a higher standard, so as to command better prices. Even in some of our large towns, where a good price for a good article would readily be paid, it is extremely difficult to obtain good butter; and a most, effective and popular way to improve our methods, such as would be likely to instruct all classes of butter-makers, would be to carry out practical illustrations by a really competent man, well up in the science and practice of the art and use of the latest machinery, in a travelling dairy such as Canon Bagot instituted in Ireland, where they have improved the quality of butter and proved a very great success. A new machine that no doubt will come into use in the large factories before long is the " Delaiteuse ; " one has been ordered by a large dairy farmer in Canterbuy already for use on his farm. Its advantages are obvious from the following description taken from a Home paper : "It is constructed on the centrifugal principle, so well known in connection with the Laval creamseparator, between which and the Delaiteuse there seems, at first sight, considerable resemblance. It is really an improved form of mechanical butter-worker ; but, inasmuch as the process to which it subjects the butter in no way affects its condition, the Delaiteuse may be said to be just as much superior to the ordinary butter-workers as the butter-workers are superior to the manual methods of working up butter. This is especially true where large butter-factories are concerned. The action of the machine, briefly described, is as follows : The butter, after leaving the churn, is, while still in a granular state, placed, about 161b. at a time, in a canvas bag. This bag is then placed in a metal cylinder, perforated with holes like a colander, which, from motion communicated to the horizontal spindle, is made to revolve rapidly seven or eight hundred turns a minute. The result is that the butter-milk,- or any other moisture the butter may contain, is driven off to the circumference, and thence through the holes to the outer case, whence it passes out by a pipe into a receptacle underneath, the butter remaining in a perfectly dry condition, in immediate readiness to be worked up into pats of whatever shape may be required. The whole operation only takes four minutes, and directly one lot of butter is dealt with another may be put in. It follows then that, taking five minutes as the time required, changing included, about lfcwt. of butter can be dealt with in an hour. There is a friction-brake attached, by which—after the butter has been spun round three or four minutes —the machine can be immediately stopped to put in a fresh lot. The intermediate motion and friction-clutch, for getting up speed, form part of the machine—an improvement on the Laval type, where they are separate. The price of the whole is said to be £28." The manufacture of cheese is carried on to a larger extent in factories than is the case with butter, but according to the census returns they are responsible for only about 40 per cent, of the total produced even yet. Quantity. Value. lb. £ Annual produce, by census returns ... ... 4,549,795 ... 96,407 Produced in factories ... ... ... 1,843,520 ... 40,543 Exported in 1885 ... ... ... 1,707,440 ... 35,742 Exported in 1884 ... ... ... 1,158,304 ... 25,074

5

H.—1.

The output of the factories will probably be increased during this present season, as not onlyare they being better supported by farmers, but several new ones have started operations in Taranaki and Southland this year, so that now there will be nearly forty butter and cheese factories in work. The first factory in the colony was started a few years ago by the New Zealand and Australian Land Company on their estate at Bdendale, in Southland, and has been carried on with satisfactory results ever since, and also been the means of inducing farmers to settle on the company's land, many of them paying for their land mainly through the milk sold to the factory. This factory has a working capacity of 2,400 gallons a day, and was giving 4d. per gallon of 101b. at the beginning of this season, and was receiving milk from seventeen farmers, besides that of the cows belonging to the Land Company. During the three winter months butter is made instead of cheese, for which purpose the De Laval separator is used, and last winter all the butter was sold at good prices in Dunedin. The factory is a large wooden building on the main line, surrounded by first-rate grazing-land, and has been the model on which several of the other factories in the colony have been built. To show how suitable the district is for milk-raising, the manager informed me the day I visited the factory that the milk received that day amounted to 1,722 gallons, and was the yield of 593 cows, showing an average of 2-9 gallons each, which must be considered very good from such a large number. At Wyndham, a few miles from Edendale, is another large factory, capable of dealing with over 2,000 gallons of milk; 1,800 gallons were being received daily at the beginning of December from forty contributors, at the same tariff as at Edendale. Cheese is here made on the popular Cheddar system, and a 1,200-gallon circular American vat, as well as two of the ordinary oblong vats, are in use. A fine and well-arranged brick building was completed early this season at Gore, built from plans made by the present manager, Mr. Bobbins, whose large experience gained in America was most useful. The machinery and fittings are of the newest pattern, and were imported from America. Cheese is made on the Canadian Cheddar principle, a modification of the English Cheddar. The curd-mill used is reckoned an improvement on the English one :it cuts the curd in much the same manner as a root-pulper does turnips. In a few of the factories the American or Canadian system of making Cheddar cheese is employed ; but, as a rule, the English is found to suit the majority. The factories in the South appear to have been more successful in their operations than those in Wellington and Taranaki, and the former also were paying higher prices for milk, at any rate at the beginning of this season, for, owing to the poor price cheese is realising, it has been found necessary by some of these factories to lower their price. The highest prices given for milk were —at the Wyndham, Edendale, Gore, Waianawa, and Waimatuku factories, 4d. per gallon of 101b. ; while in the North the prices ranged from 3d. per gallon of 111b. at Makino, to 3Jd. per gallon of lOJlb. at Greytown. One of the most satisfactory ways of arriving at the price to be paid for milk, both for the supplier and the factory, is that employed at the Ashburton factory, where the amount of cream in the milk, as shown by test, is made the base of estimating the value. No milk is received there that does not show 9 per cent, of cream. Milk giving 11 per cent, of cream is paid for at 3Jd. per gallon, 3d. per gallon giving 10 per cent, of cream, and 2-|-d. per gallon down to 9 per cent., reckoning the gallon at 111b. The tests are carried out by the manager, and are examined and certified to as correct by a shareholder, who may possibly have to certify, though unwittingly, that his own milk is of an inferior quality. Mr. Harding, the manager, keeps a series of very careful and valuable records, and some interesting facts no doubt will be obtained from them as to the relative values of milk giving different percentages of cream for butter- or cheese-making. This factory was not particularly well supported by the farmers in the district; so a large shareholder determined to contribute a large supply of milk this season, and was sending the milk of seventy cows to the factory ; and the benefit of getting a fair price for their milk has been realised by other farmers, and in the summer there were sixteen contributors, one of whom sent milk a distance of nine miles. Factories can now be built and fitted up with the necessary boilers, pumps, and other plant for a very reasonable sum. One capable of dealing with eight or nine hundred gallons of milk a day, like the Waimatuku factory, near Invercargill, would cost about £1,000 complete. It is a wooden building, divided into four rooms besides the engine-room—a small receiving-room, where the milk is weighed and run into the two cooling-vats; the cheese-room, containing two 500-gallon oblong vats and plenty of space for another; the press-room; and the curing-room, fitted up with reversible shelves, and with space for 20 tons of cheese. Hot- and cold-water pipes are laid all over the building. A factory of this kind, where there is no large sum of money sunk in expensive buildings handicapping the finances of the company, should, provided it is kept going at its full capacity, and other things being equal, be able to show a profit at the end of the season, if any factory can. Some of the factories, such as those at Temuka, Wanganui, Gore, and others, have put up fine substantial permanent brick buildings, with double w T alls, with an air-space between, in order to keep an even temperature inside; but unless the companies are strong the cost of these buildings must stand in the way of shareholders receiving dividends in seasons when cheese fetches low prices. Where possible the whey is sold either in small quantities at about Is. per 100 gallons, or the right to feed pigs, in the piggeries usually attached to cheese-factories, with the whey produced during the season. In other cases the factory companies feed the whey to pigs on their own account. One butter-factory utilised the skim-milk from the separator last season to make-skim milk cheese, and sold one lot at a satisfactory price; but the next lots resulted in a loss, and the manufacture of this class of cheese was given up.

2—H. 1.

H.—1.

6

A few private cheese-makers produce the richer kinds, such as Stilton; but the market is limited, and such cheeses are almost unknown except among a few regular customers of the makers. Whether we shall ever produce soft cheeses of the kinds which command such a ready sale at good prices on the Continent, like the Brie and Camembert, and which are finding favour in the English market, seems very doubtful, as the Cheddar system is no doubt the best for use in factories, and this cheese appears to suit the popular taste better than other makes, and, taking one year with another in suitable localities, cheese-making will most probably pay the farmers about as well as anything they can produce. W. de G. Reeves, 6th April, 1887. Officer in Charge, Agricultural Branch.

[Approximate Cost of Paper.— Preparation, nil; printing (1,425 copies), 3 19S. 6d.]

Authority: Geobge Didsbuby, Government Printer, Wellington.—1887.