CREAMERY COST OF MANUFACTURING A POUND OF BUTTER. DESCRIPTION OF CREAMERIES. Number re porting. Oost-cents. 2. 1. In creameries making not more than 50,000 pounds of butter. Average for classes 2 and 3.. The average of classes 2 and 3 is about the average make of the creameries of the state, viz, 104,518 pounds of butter. The fact that the average cost in these average creameries is about the same as the average cost for the state tends to strengthen the idea that the above figures are correct, especially in view of the fact that more than half of the creameries in the state are included in these two classes. But the foregoing figures do not show all the expense to the farmer between the butter fat in the milk on his farm and the finished product sold in its usual market. His expense of hauling milk to the factory will approximate 24 cents per pound of butter made; the factory expense is 2 cents, and the freight and commission will amount to at least 2 cents more, making a total of 64 cents that must be subtracted from the actual selling price in order to determine the net proceeds to the farmer who produced the milk from which the butter was made. The average price for the last year has been 22.78 cents; hence the farmer who has received about 16 cents for his butter (not the butter fat price) has received all that he is reasonably entitled to get from his butter under existing conditions. He has no possible control over the freight and commission charges, and so the only way in which he can increase the net returns from his butter is by decreasing the expense of making it at the creamery or by decreasing the expense of hauling the milk. This can only be done by converting the whole milk creamery into a gathered cream plant. The expense of making butter in a gathered creamery is about 1 cent a pound, and the expense of gathering the cream is about 1 cent a pound more, which would show an apparent saving of 2 cents a pound over the cost of hauling the milk to a whole milk creamery and having the butter made at the usual expense of 24 cents per pound. Of course under the ordinary system of hand skimming the loss of butter fat in skimming would much more than equal the apparent saving, and while theoretically the farm separator would obviate this loss, yet it is still an open question whether the farm separator, under average conditions, can be successfully operated on the average farm and the cream taken care of properly so that no loss of quality results. COWS, PATRONS, FARM SEPARATORS, ACID TEST, AND PASTEURIZATION. The following table shows the number of patrons and the number of cows for the creameries that have reported upon these items. It is not possible to have a complete census each year of these important items, but the policy of this office has been to assume that the averages made from the reports so far as received are the averages for the state; then knowing the total number of creameries in the state the totals can be made up with great accuracy. And by pursuing the same plan each year, comparisons may be made between the relatively accurate totals. Notice that in making the totals, the number of real creameries is taken instead of the number of creameries and skim stations combined. The statistics for farm separators are also given in the table and show the following comparison: Whole number of farm separators in use.... 1762 3332 The table shows that eighty-five creameries of the state use Mann's acid test and twenty-two creameries use Farrington's alkali test to determine the ripening of the cream for churning. The figures show that about one in seven of.the creameries is using a test for the ripeness of the cream for churning. The number of creameries that pasteurize their skimmed milk is this year 205; last year but seventy-eight reported to the same effect. The statistical table of Iowa's creameries needs but little explanation. It shows, among other things, that 121 new creameries and skim stations have been built in Iowa in the last year, and that seventy-two have been closed. Of these seventy two one creamery in Linn county and one in Wright county have been closed by consolidation with other creameries in their respective towns; six creameries have been burned and not yet rebuilt, and eight are closed up temporarily on account of the closing of the Marshall Creamery Company's plants. There are also three creameries that have become cheese factories. Hence there is a net gain in the number of creameries of forty-six plants. There were a number of errors in last year's list, two of them consisting of duplications for which this office is to blame, and the others were skim stations reported where none existed. In making up the list of creameries and skim stations nothing is put on the list unless this office has some definite knowledge of the existence of the same. But of course all skim stations reported together with a creamery plant are supposed to be correct. These errors account for the fact that a comparison of last year's creamery list with the present one does not show the real gain of forty-six creameries, but they do not alter the fact that the number of creamery plants increased last year about 5 per cent, and the whole number of creameries is now 994. Comparisons with like figures for last year are: Three reported "closed" are now cheese factories. 56 36 |