OUR STAPLE INDUSTRIES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3195, 15 April 1911, Page 10

OUR STAPLE INDUSTRIES.

RURAL NEW ZEALAND UNDER REVIEW.

WELLINGTON: A PROVINCE

PROGRESSIVE.

CONDITIONS OH DAIRYING.

(By R. J. Fames). Generally speaking, the conditions of dairying are not so impressive as they are in those parts of Taranaki where the production of butter and cheese constitutes (the sole means ot uvelihoou of farmers, occupying large stretches of contiguous dairy country At 1 aimerston North the New Zealand Dairy Farmers’ Dairy Union has one of its centres, bet the fat from which its Jot) tons or so of butter is made annually is drawn from various i>oints of a district about 50 miles in length. There are a good many proprietary concerns operating—more in proportion, than in any other district in the North Island. The farmers have not- got on their iee.it, so co-operatively speaking, as firmly as dairymen have done elsewhere. J lie Rongotea Co. (co-operative) offers the strongest example of the march of the industry, and of the 65 suppliers who serve this one-roof factory express each day the value of butter-fat to- the district. At Eketahuna the Dairy Union lias a fine up-to-date factory, spaciously built in concrete. In size this establishment has provided for whatever increase in dairying is probable for some years to come. The bulk of the cream comes -by rail from near Dannevirke in tho north, to Cross’ Creek in the south. With a few conspicuous exceptions such as the Eketahuna factory—the factory buildings and appliances and the farm cowsheds and appointments are not yet so imposing as they might be, b-u there can he no doubt of the improvements that are being made annually, and that the dairying industry will play a much greater part —big as that part is now —in the future of "Wellington district. CO-OPERATIVE PIG-FARMING.

There is in progress at Taratahi, near Carterton, in The Wairarapa, an experiment which will be of to every dairy factory supplier in New Zealand — an experiment in co-operative pig-farming. In the course of these articles it has more than once been pointed out that the great potentialities of pig-breeding do not appear to be fully realised by farmers thorughout the North Island. This is not because the farmers do not study and understand their own business- it is because a very great number of the men on the land, and particularly of the new men, are not farmers. There are two things that nearly every man thinks lie can do, and do well —namely, run a farm and run a newspaper. But one has only to converse with the successful, practical men, men of resource and experience, to become convinced that the reason of most failures and incomplete successes by men on the land is that they have not realised that farming does not call for muscles so insistently as it calls for brains. Taraitahi factory is a cliecse-making concern, and whey was not popularly regarded by some of the suppliers as being worth feeding to pigs. Thus it happened that last season a good deal of this by-product went to waste. Several things occurred to the directors. Those who took whey home had' an expenditure of tiinc in awaiting their turn, and again in feeding the pigs, and also an exj>enditure of vehicular effort in haulage. Besides, the" use of the. milk cans for the cartage of whey—not always freshsmelling—was not viewed with favor. These and other 6onsMefations prompted the directorate to'extend the principle of co-operation ho pig-raising. In pursuance of this determination a piggery was established' close to the factory, so that the whey, fresh and sweet, is gotten to the troughs by gravitation. There are 12 “pens,” eight yards wide by four chains long, witli sleeping sheds at one end and concrete feeding-troughs at the other. .In February there were some 340 pigs in the yards, graded into their divisions from the newcomers to the finished, baconers, ready to be entrained to the curing works. The Berkshire is chiefly used and no one would desire to see a finer lot than the fifty or so which were ju«jt topped off at the time of writing. Their feeding? That is interesting. After being weaned, and until they turn the scale at about 40lbs, their daily fare is whey and molasses, with an occasional handful of wheatmeal thrown in. From 40lbs onwards until 'they reach 120 lbs (live weight) their sole fare (the chairman of directors told me) is whey! Thereafter they have more wlie.v, with wheatmeal to harden them off. Being relieved of the necessity of rooting for a living, it was not surprising to see the stock doing so well on their daily round of eating and sleeping in sweet contentment. The healthy conditions under which the pigs are kept must necessarily ad'd to tlie worth of the product. So far there has been no breeding, the young stock having been bought as required. The expert engaged to look after the pigs attends to the buying. It is intended, however, to go in for breeding if the results of the experiment. as now carried on points to success in that direction. So far as finance is concerned, the arrangements wore made with the bank, on guarantee. on a similar basis to that upon' which the factory finance rests itself. So far there are no figures available to show how the venture will pan out, the working having only been in operation since September last. It was estimated, however, that the clear profit to tho company would he about 10s per pig.. The pig profits will, of course, be distributed on The basis of the butter-fat supply. Tho young stock cost about 14s 6d a-piece to buv and the first 300 sent out averaged about £2 per baconer. Asked if the baconor paid best, the chairman replied: “Well.' I am satisfied that this year we would have done very much betteF out of pork.” In Hawke’s Bay recently a proprietor of a cheese factory complained that one objection which farmers had to supply a. cheese factory was that the whev was not a'sufficients valuable bvproduct—as compared with skim-milk —for pig-raising., The opinion of the chairman of the Taratahi directorate was asked. “Skim-milk,” he said, “is very much better than whey.” Suppliers and directors throughout the Dominion will watch with interest the result of {Taratahi’s experiment in cooperative pig-raising.