The Wilmington morning star., 1946-02-03
BUTTER SHORTAGE
MAY GROW WORSE
BY ARTHUR BYsTR0M


MADISON, Wise, Feb. 1 = u
The prospect for an adequate sup
ply Of butter in coming months Is
daily becoming DINNER, on the
basis of trends in this greatest Of
milk producing states.
The concensus Of Wisconsin
dairymen state agricultural OIL
cials and others is that the Ameri-
can housewife will have plenty o1
milk, cream and cheese but Will
have to continue to scramble fo1
:, her butter supply.
. Some dairynen contend the but
ter situation may well become
worse instead Of better. A trend
= has become more pronounced daily
! in Wisconsin toward diversion o1
much of the milk that formerly
went into butter into sweet cream
cheese, condensed, evaporated ano
powdered milk.
. The reason, according to Ruber1
M. Steinhauer, president Of the
;. :. Wisconsin Cremeries Associa
tion, is that dairymen must do Il
10 stay in business. Most OF Wis.
consin's 430 cremeries are mem.
bers of the association.
"Wisccnsin dairy plant opera
tors have to pay farmers $2.65 for
. hundred pounds Of milk" he
said. "They can't pay that much
to farmers. pay their costs Of op-
Grafton and sell butter at the cell
ing set by the OPA without losing
money in the process. AS result
they are divering more and more
of their milk into cream, cheese
and other by.products. because
they can get a much larger return
from those products"
Steinhauer. views on ceiling
prices are in contrast, however,
with those expressed by the Wis
consin, Farm Bureau Federation
which went on record against in
creases III butter price ceilings, de-
elaring that such increases would
not ease the shortage
Harvey Eeavers, head of the
dairy division of the Wisconsin
Department of Agriculture, said
that eastern markets have been
paying up to 50 cents for a pound
of butterfat for cream since the
government dropped ceiling prices
and other restrictions on sweet
cream. In comparison, he said,
OPA ceilings on butter limit the
yield to the crenery to Sc cents
per pound Of butterfat. There are
about 3.5 pounds Of butterfat to 100
pounds of milk.
Whether any appreciable amount
Of butter has moved into black
market channels is debatable.
However, a representative Of a ma
.tional diary company who travels
widely in Minnesota, Iowa and
Wisconsin, the nations three lead
ing butter producing states, declar-
ed that he knew Of some butter
beng held In storage for an anti
cipated price rise. He added that
It was only a small percentage OF
the nations total. Steinhauer said
that Wisconsin warehouses had
little or no butter In storage.
A Madison warehouse that
normally stores half a million
pounds Of butter had only con-
signment for the Army and case
Of so pounds on hand when this
writer visited it.
The United States Department OF
Agriculture reported that for the
week ending Thursday, Jan. II, the
northern m dwest area which pro-
duces 50 per cent Of the nations
butter supply, produced 36 per cent
less butter than it did the same
week year ago.
Minnesota ranks as the top but
ter state, producing about II per
cent Of the nations total, followed
by Iowa with 142 per cent and
Wisconsin with 10 per cent, accord
ing to department statistics.
Milk production in Wisconsin
was in excess Of 1880, 900, 900
pounds in 1945 to reach an all time
high.
Milton n. Button, director Of the
Wisconsin Department Of Agricul-
ture, who is in close touch with
the situation here and In other
states, believes that the demand