The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1918-05-17
DAIRYMEN FACE PROBLEM
Milk Surplus Is on Increase, Chiefly
Due to Lack of Shipping
Space.
BY J. A. WALDRoN, Extension Agent
in Dairying Michigan Agricultural


in Dairying Michigan Agricultural
College.
East Lansing. Mich.-Of problems
which confront the dairymen of Mich
igan none, perhaps, Is causing more
general concern at the present time
(May and June) than the apparently
ever-increasing surplus of milk. Even
questions Of feed supply and prices
have ut least for the time being become
secondary to ii. This surplus of milk
and dairy products, according to those
who have looked into the matter, Is
mostly attributable to dearth OF
shipping facilities, which is cutting us
off from the European markets. where
the shortage of necessary butterfat
products is more acute even than Is
the oversupply of them on this side.
Warehouses of the cOndensarieS, and
stOrehOuses on the eastern seabOard,
are consequently full to overflow.
What this means to the producer of
milk it doesn't require much intuition
to guess. The experiences of dairy
men near Portland. i'm Ionia county.
are typical of what Is happening In
numerous other parts of the state.
This district was supplying about 49,
600 pounds of milk daily to Grand
Ledge condensary, but during the last
ten days in April (and this state OF
affairs may still be existing) the con-
lensary bad to turn this milk back.
The company would like to have
taken the milk and stored it until the
finished product began to move, but
It lacked the capital necessary to en-
able it to do this-and many other OF
the smaller enterprises are finding
themselves in the same predicament.
Another cause of the surplus is to be
found in the effort ut adjustment or
milk prices that has been made in
several of the larger cities within the
past winter. AS result of this effort
and the growth Of Il feeling by Il large
part of the public against the produc-
ers, the consumption of milk in the cit
les has fallen off markedly-and this
despite the fact that even at II and
IA cents Il quart milk is one of the
cheapest and most nutritious foods the
consumer can purchase. The new les
sons in food conservation and thrift
are also having their effect in lessen
ing the call for dairy products.
Meanwhile there is no doubt about
the acuteness of the demand for but.
terfat products in France, Belgium,
England, Italy and other European
81 hn Hai
man there might be solution of these
current difficulties If the government
would place orders for future de-
livery upon which the condensa-
ries and the milk corporations
might borrow mOney-though there is
nothing to indicate at present that
this will be done. An organized cam
paign Of advertising Of dairy products
by the dairy associations. in the man
ner in which the California growers en-
tighten consumers about the vir-
tues of their fruits, would also
help immensely in increasing the de-
mand for and the appreciation of dairy
products.
Among officials of the department Of
agriculture and the food administers
ton the feeling is that this critical
situation will be relieved by fall, when
our launching of ships will begin to
exceed the toll taken by the pirate u
boats.
Under the circumstances, it is the
opinion of the writer that in the long
run it will be wiser for dairymen to
struggle along as best they can for the
present, rather than sacrifice any Of
their herds, for while the present may
look dark enough, future Is in pros
pect which. from the standpoint Of
profit and general good Of the industry,
should amply repay producers for the
existing hardships.