For the past twenty years dairy farming in Victoria has been steadily
advancing. The industry has proved very successful, so that thousands of
farmers are not only making a comfortable living from it, but in many
cases it has raised hard-working families into positions of comparative
wealth. The principal markets supplied are those of Great Britain,
South Africa, India, and the East. At present the industry is only in
its infancy. It is capable of almost unlimited expansion. So far,
farmers have confined their attention almost exclusively to butter, but
the first steps have also been successfully taken to manufacture cheese
and condensed milk, and to open up a regular market for fresh pork,
hams, and bacon.
[Illustration: How the Dairy Fodder Question is Settled in Australia.]
A large portion of Victoria is suitable for dairy farming on account of
the suitability of soil for the production of pasture and fodder crops,
and the mild climatic conditions. For the most part the cows are fed
solely on the natural pastures, little provision either in the way of
food or shelter being thought necessary. Progressive farmers, however,
find that it pays them to grow fodder for their herd and to shelter the
animals in the winter, and anyone beginning in Victoria is advised to
make up his mind to cultivate a certain area of his land from the first,
instead of trusting to grazing alone.
[Illustration: Shorthorn Cattle.]
The southern half of Victoria is divided, roughly speaking, into the
Western District and Gippsland. Two-thirds of the dairy cows are kept in
these portions of the State. The Western District is famed for its rich
soil of volcanic origin. Every town and hamlet has its butter factory.
Gippsland is a district of rolling hills and downs, and of a
comparatively heavy rainfall. Many parts were once covered with dense
forests, but these are rapidly passing away before the pioneer.
Practically every railway station has become a centre of the dairying
industry, and cans of cream are always in evidence on the platforms.
Owing to its suitable climate Gippsland has become the centre of maize
growing in the State, and much of this crop reaches the market in the
form of butter and pork.
In the north the summers are warmer and drier, but the soil is perhaps
even more prolific than in the southern parts of Victoria. Large areas
are suitable for dairy farming under ordinary conditions, and extensive
water storage works have been provided for the irrigation of large
tracts of country which is being made available in suitable areas for
dairying under very liberal conditions.
The manufacturing and marketing of the butter is carried on, to a very
large extent, on a co-operative basis, the factories being owned and
managed by the farmers who supply the cream. Two hundred factories are
scattered throughout the State, the largest of them producing upwards of
40 tons of butter per week in the height of the season. Where the farm
is close to the factory the milk is taken to the creamery, where it is
separated, and the corresponding quantity of skim milk is returned to
the farmer. In other cases the farmer owns his separator, the milk is
passed through the machine as soon as the cows are milked, and the cream
is sent to the factory by road or rail every day or two, according to
the size of the farm.
[Illustration: Dairy Factory--Refrigerating Butter Train.]
Government Assistance to the Farmer.
Every branch of the producing interests is steadily fostered by the
Government of Victoria in a way that may sound strange to the British
farmer. Besides the facilities for acquiring farms and homes, the
Government employs dairy supervisors, who assist the farmer with
information and advice on matters relating to the farm and herd. The
produce is conveyed by the railways (which belong to the Government) at
special low rates. It is received into the Government cool stores, where
it is graded and frozen ready for export. The State has contracts with
the principal lines of steam-ships, securing regular despatch, a minimum
temperature, and a very low rate of freight for the British markets. It
costs less to send butter from a farm in Victoria to London than it does
to send it from a farm in Ireland.
[Illustration: "Miss Prim," Champion Ayrshire Cow.]