;^66 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Prof. Lee: It is too bad that the creamery business has gotten 

 into that condition. I once heard a representative of a centralizing 

 concern telling the farmers that they were only getting a 16 per 

 cent overrun, when I knew that that company would not have 

 a buttermaker in their employ who could not get an overrun of 

 25 per cent. Before I got through with him he moved on. 



INIr. vStephenson : "Wiliat do you consider an honest and legitimate 

 overrun ? 



Prof. Lee : "When a creamery makes an overrun of 20 per cent 

 it is getting all that is coming to it. Many of you will disagree 

 with me on that. We all know that the easiest thing to do to 

 regulate the overrun is to cut the farmers' test. Butter contain- 

 ing 83 per cent fat and yielding an overrun of 25 per cent, where 

 does it come from? The farmers produce the butter-fat and they 

 are entitled to the fat they produce, and if we have come to a 

 point where a high overrun is demanded we ought to educate the 

 farmer to the fact that it can't he done. I have come to the 

 point, gentlemen, where if a buttermaker gets an overrun of 

 19 per cent I say he has done good work. 



Mr. Thomas : I understood you to say that a buttermaker could 

 not get an overrun of 20 per cent without cutting the test. I 

 claim that he can. 



Prof. Lee: You can't buy 100 pounds of butter-fat from the 

 farmer without losing some of it. How much'? 



Mr. Thomas: Not necessarily any. 



Prof. Lee: Let's put it down to 1 per cent. For every 100 

 pounds of fat you buy you make only 99 pounds of it into butter. 

 Creameries pasteurizing lose from .6 to .8 of a pound. I know 

 of biittermakers pasteurizing their cream who are losing from .5 to 

 .8 of a pound in their buttermilk. If you have lost one you only 

 have 99 pounds to start with. Therefore, if you are getting a 

 25 per cent overrun you must have less than 79 per cent fat in 

 your butter. I want to say that if we have come to a point where 

 the small creameries are going to make butter containing less 

 than 80 per cent fat it is time a halt is called. I believe that the 

 average fat content of Iowa butter loday is 82 per cent. If you 

 have lost one pound of fat, tell me how you can get even 22 per 

 cent overrun. I am putting up to you a mechanical problem. 



Mr. Thomas: Don't you consider butter containing 16 per cent 

 moisture, 4 per cent salt and 1 per cent casein legitimate? 



