Australia, the Dairy Country

Part 1

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DEPARTMENT OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS, MELBOURNE.

AUSTRALIA: The Dairy Country

Dairy Farmers are specially invited and assisted to come to Australia because it is considered that in a progressive young Country with so much Territory adapted for Dairying such Settlers will advance the interest of the Country and of themselves.

PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR EXTERNAL AFFAIRS, MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA . . . . 1915.

By Authority: McCARRON, BIRD & CO., Printers. 479 Collins Street, Melbourne.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Bacon-Curing 48 Bee Farming 21 Breeds of Cattle in Use 33 Butter Exported 11 Cheese-making 47 Clearing Land 45 Condensed Milk 36 Conditions of Selection 45 Co-op. Factories, Facilities given 36 Cost of Starting a Farm 27, 34 Dairy Herds 47 Experiences of Farmers 35 Facilities Offered to Dairymen 31, 38, 42 Gov'mnt. Assistance to the Farmer 31 Grasses 35 Growth of the Industry 10 Labour Conditions 5 Land for Dairy Farming 26, 31, 32, 43 Land, Price of 26, 33, 43 Monetary Aid to Settlers 25 New South Wales 26-27 Pig Raising 14 Poultry Farming 20 Profit per Cow 33, 40 Queensland 31-36 Seasons 7 South Australia 37-40 Share System of Dairying 22 Size of Average Herd 34 State Supervision 12 Stock, Price of 33 Tasmania 44-48 Victoria 27-31 Western Australia 40-44 Winter Feed 35

Information Concerning AUSTRALIA may be obtained on application to--

IN AMERICA:

AUSTRALIAN PAVILION, PANAMA PACIFIC EXHIBITION.

NIEL NIELSEN, Esq., Trade and Immigration Commissioner for New South Wales, 419 Market Street, San Francisco.

F. T. A. FRICKE, Esq., Land and Immigration Agent for Victoria, 687 Market Street, San Francisco.

IN LONDON:

The High Commissioner for THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA, 72 Victoria Street, Westminster, London, S.W.

IN AUSTRALIA:

THE SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS, Collins and Spring Streets, Melbourne.

The suitability of Australia as a country for the dairyman is referred to in the report of the Scottish Agricultural Commission, who toured the States of the Commonwealth in 1910-11, in the following terms:--

"The practice of dairying, in a limited domestic sense, as applied to the milking of a few cows and the making of a little butter and cheese for family use, is as old as the history of mankind, and in that restricted meaning dairying has been carried on in Australia since the arrival of the first settlers. But the industry as existing there to-day is a vastly different matter, being already of great importance, and promising rapid and extensive development. It is a young industry, so recently out of its infancy that if this report had been written fifteen years ago the section on dairying might have been almost as brief as the famous chapter on snakes in Ireland.

"The live stock brought to Sydney by Captain Phillip in 1788, and sent to propagate their kind at Farm Cove, consisted of one bull, four cows, one calf, and seven pigs. Their descendants in 1908 included about ten and a-half millions of cattle, of which nearly two millions were dairy cows. This is about one cow for every two persons in the Commonwealth, which seems a large proportion, but as it means only one cow for every two square miles in Australia, there is ample room for expansion. In Great Britain we have about twenty-six cows for every square mile, and only one cow for every fifteen people. These figures indicate that in proportion to its population Australia is much more of a dairying country than Great Britain, but that in proportion to its area, it has developed the industry much less extensively, and is still capable of making enormous growth. Until within comparatively recent years there was little dairying anywhere in the Commonwealth, and what little there was appears to have been carried on by somewhat primitive methods. Modern developments, the spread of scientific knowledge, the fostering care of Government, and, above everything, the advent of the separator, of the milking machine, and of the freezer have changed all that. To-day the industry is prospering and full of promise....

"There is no denying the fact that every State in the Commonwealth has extensive districts where dairying could be carried on very profitably. Indeed there must be very few parts of the world where Nature does so much to help and so little to hinder the provident and industrious producer of milk.

"The most important advantage of all is undoubtedly the climate, and that, like many another thing of value, is a good servant, but a bad master. It would not be easy to overstate the benefit a dairyman receives from being relieved of the need for housing, hand-feeding, and tending his cows during a long winter. His cows are healthier, their feeding costs less, there is no cleaning of byres, no washing of floors, no preparing of food, no never-ending carting of turnips, no filling of sheds with hay or straw. His anxiety, his work, and his expense are reduced by half, through the simple agency of a friendly climate. And yet this same climate is also his most dangerous enemy.

"There are certainly also adverse influences which must not be forgotten, but a careful examination of the whole position will probably lead to the conclusion that Australia is, on the whole, a good dairyman's country.

"The advantages include:--(1) Cheap land, (2) cheap cows, (3) inexpensive buildings, (4) a climate permitting cows to be in the open all the year round, (5) a convenient market and a fair price at the factories, (6) helpful Government supervision.

"The disadvantages are:--(1) Dear and scarce labour, (2) an inferior stock of milk cows, (3) occasional dry seasons, and (4) the farmer's inexperience and ignorance of scientific dairying."

These several points are touched on in this pamphlet in the chapters dealing with the individual States, but some general remarks are offered here in regard to the four points mentioned as operating disadvantageously.

(1) Dear and Scarce Labour.--Every young country at times experiences the difficulty of procuring sufficient skilled assistance to keep pace with the rapid expansion of its industries. Australia is no exception. Dairy farmers there have not always been able to obtain experienced milkers. The farmer with children old enough to assist him is at a great advantage, and some of the most successful dairy farms in the Commonwealth are worked mainly by the owners and their families. But where the herd is too large, or the family too small, the milking machine, which is really a valuable aid to the dairyman, has been pressed into use, with satisfactory results.

Part 2

There is no doubt that rapid as has been the expansion of this industry in Australia, its development has been distinctly retarded by the want of reliable milkers.

But what is the farmer's bane is the farm labourer's boon. The scarcity of labour has checked the farmer's operations, but it gives the man seeking employment a wider field.

Competent milkers readily find employment at $4.80 to $6.00 per week and keep. In every important district good dairy hands also have facilities extended to them for entering into arrangements for dairying on shares, with profit to themselves (see pp. 16-18).

(2) An Inferior Stock of Milk Cows.--The fact that while in many districts there are to be found dairy herds averaging barely 300 gallons per cow per annum, with a butter fat percentage of little over 3.5, carried on the same class of land as herds which average over 500 gallons per cow, with over 4 per cent. butter fat, will enable any dairy farmer to realise how much room there is for improvement in this thriving young industry, and what scope there is for the man accustomed to get the best results from his land and his herd. But the Governments of the respective States afford special facilities by way of importing and placing at the disposal of farmers stud cattle of the highest standards. Private persons are also doing a great deal in importing and breeding high-class animals. Herd-testing associations are becoming more numerous. Farmers are learning that it is profitable to keep milk records and to cull out of their herds the cows that do not give payable yields, and pronounced advancement is being made in this direction.

(3) Occasional Dry Seasons.--The effects of dry spells, which sometimes occur even in the best-watered dairying districts, can be greatly minimised by the conservation of fodder, by cheap and easy methods of silage. So rich is the country in succulent natural grasses, and so congenial is the climate, that farmers exhibit a tendency to rely too much on the bounty of the seasons. This is what the Scottish Commission meant when they referred to the friendly climate as being the dairyman's most dangerous enemy. It is true that in normal years milch cows may depasture the whole year long on the natural pastures, and on this food alone yield milk of magnificent flavour, producing butter and cheese of the highest quality. But there should be put by to supplement the natural fodder during dry times a supply of food either as hay or silage. The experts of the various agricultural departments strongly advocate the use of the silo, but the advice has not yet been generally adopted.

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