Despite the absence of the official records of the Liverpool & District Cowkeepers' Association, it is possible to gain an understanding of the business and activity of the association by studying the newspaper archives. Liverpool has had a number of local newspapers in circulation over the past 150 years or so; plus, news from the city was often reported in newspapers local to other parts of Lancashire.
The extracts below cover the period 1882 to 1975 and reflect some of the wider issues of the day being faced by the city, the region or indeed, the country as a whole. Topics range from the opening of the city's first cattle mart to the setting of the price of milk during the two World Wars to the retirement of the city's last cowkeepers. I find they make for fascinating reading - I hope you do too.
The extracts below cover the period 1882 to 1975 and reflect some of the wider issues of the day being faced by the city, the region or indeed, the country as a whole. Topics range from the opening of the city's first cattle mart to the setting of the price of milk during the two World Wars to the retirement of the city's last cowkeepers. I find they make for fascinating reading - I hope you do too.
Liverpool Mercury - Monday 25th September 1882
FARMING PRODUCE FOR LARGE TOWNS.
Of late years the demand for farm produce of all kinds in large towns has enormously increased; and in addition to the consumption in such places as Liverpool, a great export trade in grain, vegetables, and high-class cattle has also sprung up. To meet this new condition of things, various markets and auction marts, where the seller and the purchaser may easily meet, have been established. Among the most necessary of these places, particularly in the suburbs of Liverpool, where so vast a population now reside, are those which offer facilities for the disposal of those animals - including cows - which are brought in such large numbers here, and upon which the public rely mainly for their milk supply. This want has been specially felt in the districts of Wavertree, West Derby, Everton, and Kirkdale. To meet it, an effort is made by Mr Thomas Carr, a gentleman well known in connection with agricultural matters in this part of Lancashire. Mr Carr has opened in Breck Road a mart and auction yard for the disposal chiefly of dairy cows. This place was formally opened on Saturday, and there attended on the occasion several of our leading local agriculturists and tradesmen. Mr R. Webster, of Litherland, presided, and he was supported by Messrs Churchwarden, C. W. Boote, T. Brunt, R. Washington, R. Musker Deans (auctioneer at Lucas's Repository, who occupied the vice chair), W. Rudd (solicitor to the Liverpool Cowkeepers' Association), Robert Mawdsley (secretary to the Ormskirk, Southport and Bootle Agricultural Society), T. Lloyd (managing director of the United Omnibus and Tramway Company, Limited), R. Woods, G. Wynne, R. F. Anderton, P. Cuthbert, J. C. Williams, lnnes, J. Motuma (secretary of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), M. William (superintendent of the Liverpool Fire Brigade), R. C. Yelland, P. Laycock, Robertson, and others.
After the usual loyal and patriotic toasts had been given, the Chairman proposed the toast of "The Agricultural Interests," which was received with much enthusiasm. He said few contemplated the importance of the agricultural interest in the country, and he was afraid that there was scarcely any other interest that obtained less attention. (Hear, hear.) Yet it could be proved that the agricultural interests of Great Britain 'were four times greater than all the manufacturing interests of the country’ and they would see this when he told them one item of the agricultural interest of a country paid something between 90 and 100 million a year. When complaints were made it was the fashion of some people to say, "Oh, it is only the farmers!” But those who make this remark forgot the very large interests at stake: that the failure of a harvest here resulted in the going out or remaining in the country of a very large sum of money (hear, hear); and that the difference, between a good and bad harvest was the going out or remaining in the country of about 15 million of money. He thought they would all declare the success of the agricultural interests of the country, and in such a company - assembled to inaugurate an undertaking intimately connected with that interest - the toast would be a welcome one. The toast was drunk amid much applause.
Mr Deans (the vice-chairman) responded. He gave an interesting resume of the progress of agriculture and dairy farming in England and Scotland, and mentioned that 100 million of money was obtained from the sale of hay alone. He wished Mr Carr success in the undertaking in which he had so pluckily engaged. The Chairman gave "The Commerce of Liverpool". He spoke of the great growth of the city, its vast increase of population, and the wonderful development of its commerce. As illustrating the demand which the change of circumstances brought about for agricultural produce here, he said that he remembered - and he was not an old man - the time when he brought two sacks of cabbages in a cart to Liverpool, and could not sell them; now he could without difficulty sell two cart loads; and other farmers' experiences were the same.
Mr Brunt, in responding, alluded to the progress that Everton had made, and said that the opening of Mr Carr's mart would meet a great public want.
The Chairman proposed “Success to Carr's Auction Yard." He said that such a place as had been established by the enterprise of Mr Carr was much needed, for a great number of cows were brought here, especially from the north, for sale. Hitherto there had been little facilities for their disposal. Mr Carr had now furnished that accommodation, and he was sure that that company and Mr Carr's many friends and neighbour wished him success. (Applause.)
Mr Carr, who was most cordially greeted, said in reply “I feel greatly obliged for your hearty response to this toast, and personally thank every gentleman. I have always taken a great interest in the success of cowkeeping and farming, and would do and sacrifice almost anything to serve their purpose. It is universally allowed that self-interest is the great actuating principle in almost every transaction in life. As an old cowkeeper and farmer, I have for some years seen the great want of a weekly market in Liverpool to sell by auction dairy cattle and farm produce (hear, hear) and often entreated some of my friends to join me in this undertaking. Although they agreed with me they declined to embark in the enterprise. After mature consideration, I determined to grasp the nettle firmly myself, and the result you see before you. I hope by persevering industry and determination to make it successful. The profits of dairy farming and cowkeeping depend greatly upon the health of cattle, selection, and management, and on the details of dairy management. No person hails with greater pleasure the power acquired by Government to deal with cattle disease than town dairymen. The local authorities in Liverpool have put in force the full powers of the orders from the Privy Council, with the gratifying result that out of the thousands of town-kept cows in Liverpool not a single case of cattle disease has been known for nearly two years. (Hear, hear.) The great curse to dairy farming has always been cattle plagues, pleuro-pneumonia, and foot-and-mouth disease. (Hear, hear.) In no town in England are so many cows kept in town shippons as in Liverpool and suburbs and with much success to the owners. (Applause.) I have carefully computed the number at 12,000. You cannot find land so well and profitably cultivated and with that amount of intelligence within a radius of 20 miles of any town in the country as Liverpool. And why? It is the great demand for all kinds of produce by cowkeepers. The interests of Liverpool cowkeepers and local farmers are so interwoven, the interest of one is the gain to the other. The great number of dairy cows kept in Liverpool, South Lancashire, and Cheshire used to be the old fashioned long-horn and Welsh cattle but now they are almost wholly shorthorns brought from the sound, healthy, hillside farms and rich valleys of Cumberland, Westmoreland, North Lancashire and West Riding Of Yorkshire. They are good milch cows, with a great aptitude to lay on flesh at the close of their milking career, which are the profits on which dairy farmers depend. A continued improvement in those districts is always going on. An extraordinary demand has recently sprung up by all town dairymen for these cows, which cannot be met. It would amply repay landlords and farmers in districts where dairy-cow breeding is only a secondary consideration. A good cow is £5 more for the dairy than the slaughterhouse. (Applause.) Liverpool has been without a market for dairy cows since the late old John Sharp used to travel them a three days' journey, shod with plates, from Skipton, and show them where Lime Street station is built. The nearest market at which Liverpool cowkeepers and Cheshire farmers can be supplied is Preston and district. I hope the inauguration of these new premises will be a success, and that every week a good supply will ensue. ("Hear, hear," and applause.)
Mr Carr proposed "Success to the Cowkeepers' Association", to which Mr Rudd replied.
During the afternoon the company - many of them skilled in such matters – inspected the premises, and were most favourably impressed with their construction, magnitude, excellent arrangements, capital ventilation and entire adaptability for the purpose in view.
Liverpool Mercury - Wednesday 3rd January 1883
THE COWKEEPERS' ASSOCIATION AND THE MARKETS COMMITTEE.
The following is a copy of resolutions recently sent to the Markets Committee by the Liverpool and District Cowkeepers' Association:
"1. That the North Haymarket should be closed at one o'clock p.m. as hitherto for the sale of hay, straw, and that all sales after that time be strictly prohibited.
2. That the market be kept open for the sale of grass and other green crops only until two o'clock p.m. during the months of June, July, and August.
3. That increased market accommodation is urgently required for the farmers for the sale of agricultural produce.
4. That, taking into consideration the present method of setting up unsold produce in the open air, by which it deteriorates and is a considerable loss to both vendor and consumer, it is desirable that accommodation be provided within the market under cover for the setting up all sold produce.
5. That the sale of produce in the streets adjoining the market be strictly prohibited.
6. That, considering the present unsatisfactory use made of the yard known as Blezard's yard, the committee should acquire power, either by purchase or otherwise, to discontinue it being used as a place to expose produce for sale."
In reply to the above, the Markets Committee resolved: "That the town clerk inform the memorialists that the committee are willing to recommend to the Council the following alterations. That the market be closed for the sale of hay, straw, &c., all the year round, at two o'clock instead of one p.m., as heretofore: that in the months of June, July, August and September, the markets shall be open until three o'clock p.m. for the sale of green crops only, instead of two o'clock, as heretofore; that unsold produce shall be allowed to remain in the market, under cover, from Saturday until two o'clock p.m. on the following Monday, on payment of a second toll; and that the committee cannot recommend any alteration in the tolls in the case of hampers.
On the 1st instant the Cowkeepers' Association held a meeting, when it was decided to reply as follows:- "We, the members of the Liverpool and District Cowkeepers' Association, beg to thank you for the consideration you have given to the suggestions forwarded by us to you on the 26th ultimo, and regret to find you are unable to accede to them, especially as we find that our suggestions are identical with the wishes of the Farmers', and also the Cart owners' Association. At a meeting of our association called for the evening, to consider the recommendations proposed to be submitted to the Council by the Markets Committee, it was unanimously resolved to urge the Markets Committee to reconsider the matter, and to state the following reasons why we think the suggestions should be agreed to.
1. It appears that both buyer and seller are agreed that one o'clock is quite late enough for closing the market, and gives ample time for all business requirements.
2. We find by experience that the greater part of the business is done in the last half hour before closing the market, and can be done equally as well from 12:30 to one o'clock as from 1:30 to two o'clock.
3. It is highly important to cowkeepers to have the produce they buy in the market delivered early, as by far the greater part of them commence milking from 2:30 to three o'clock and their time from then till evening is fully occupied with milking and selling their milk.
4. It is highly important to the farmers to sell and deliver their produce early, so that their men will have time to load manure and be home with their horses in reasonable time.
5. That if the recommendations of the Markets Committee be carried out they will reduce the tolls of the market, as the greater part of the cowkeepers will have to dispense with the market and buy their hay, straw, grass, &c., from the farmer, to be delivered direct from the farm to their place of business, without coming to the market.
6. With respect to the concession for leaving unsold produce in the market from Saturday to Monday, it is practically useless, there being no market on Monday for the kind of produce usually left unsold.
(Signed) JOHN HOGGARTH, Secretary."
Liverpool Mercury - Wednesday 25th April 1883
LIVERPOOL COWKEEPERS
A general meeting of the Liverpool and District Cowkeepers Association was held on Monday night at the Haymarket Hotel, Juvenal-street, Mr R. Brownlow presiding. On the motion of Mr J. Verity, seconded by Mr W. H. Hanson, the sum of £3 was voted towards the special prizes for Liverpool dairy cattle at the forthcoming Royal Manchester, Liverpool, and North Lancashire Show. The chairman and secretary were requested to suggest to the local committee of the show the desirability of giving £10 for an essay on the best mode of Liverpool cowkeeping, and prizes of £10 and £5 for the cleanest and best-managed shippons of dairy cows. Mr T. Carr moved and Mr J. Benson seconded, that a vote of thanks be sent to Inspector Luya and Mr Reynolds, V.S., for their promptness, impartiality and energy in carrying out the restrictions of the Privy Council during the recent attack of foot-and-mouth disease.
Liverpool Mercury - Thursday 27th February 1890
WATERED MILK - TO THE EDITORS OF THE LIVERPOOL MERCURY.
Gentlemen, - Adverting to your report under this heading of the case in which a milk dealer at Wavertree was fined by Mr Raffles for "selling adulterated milk to the Royal Infirmary", and in which it was alleged, in defence, that the milk was watered “for the purpose of throwing up the cream", and that there was not a single milk-dealer in Liverpool who did not "water his milk," I should be obliged if you would allow me to point out:
1. That in the trade "Cowkeepers" and "Milk dealers" are quite separate and distinct.
2. That whether the statements in defence be true or not, so far as regards the class of people known as milk dealers, i.e. those persons who merely retail country milk, and are not producers by their own cattle as the cowkeepers are, such statements are certainly untrue in regard to Liverpool cowkeepers, who do not require to water their milk for any purpose whatever.
3. The association on behalf of which I write feels it necessary to give an emphatic contradiction to the statements of the Wavertree milk dealer, which are calculated to bring into disrepute a very useful, hard-working, and honourable body of tradesmen.
John Verity, Chairman, Cowkeepers' Association. 42, Almond Street.
Liverpool Mercury - Friday 14th April 1899
LIVERPOOL COWKEEPERS' ASSOCIATION.
The second annual dinner of the city of Liverpool and District Cowkeepers' Association was held last evening in the Bear's Paw, Lord Street. About 150 members and delegates sat down to a well-served repast. Alderman John Houlding J.P., president, was in the chair, and amongst those present were Mr W. R. Brewster (Mayor of Bootle), Alderman Paull, Mr W. Madden, Captain Denton, C.C., Mr W. Roberts, C.C., Mr J. G. Taggart, C.C., Mr James Ellison, Mr F. Stoner, Mr W. Ramsden, Mr J. Noble, Mr H. Snowden, D.C., Mr W. Rudd, Mr A. Shelmerdine, C.C., Mr T. Backhouse (secretary), &a.
After the loyal toasts, the Secretary announced that letters regretting absence had been received from the Lord Mayor, Mr W. H. Long, M.P., the Hon. Arthur Stanley, M.P., the town-clerk, the medical officer of health, the chairman of the Health Committee, and the Chairman of the Markets Committee, &c.-
Mr W. Madden submitted the toast of “The City and Trade of Liverpool". He expressed the hope that the city would be favoured with great prosperity, that the time would soon come when mills would be seen working in the neighbourhood, and that Liverpool would be the channel through which the commerce of the world would pass. (Hear, hear.) He alluded to the necessity of the cowkeepers' business and the importance of the people securing a good milk supply if their health was to be studied. (Applause.)
Alderman Paull, in responding, trusted that Liverpool's trade in the future would progress as it had done in the past; and he added no trade was more entitled to share in that prosperity than the cowkeepers. (Hear, hear.)
Captain Denton, C.C., paid a compliment to the way in which the cowkeepers conducted their business. They supplied good milk to the inhabitants, and a good feeling existed between the trade and the Corporation. (Hear, hear.)
Councillor W. Roberts said that he was sure they were all glad to belong to the most progressive city in the kingdom and they all rejoiced to know that the trade of the city had never been better than it had been during the past six or eight months. (Applause.)
Councillor Taggart also responded. He said that as a member of the Health Committee he knew that the conditions under which the cowkeepers laboured were not only a pleasure to them, but to those who for the time being were placed over them in municipal government. (Applause.) The medical officer of health had that day said that the shippons in Liverpool were a credit to the city. (Applause.)
The toast of "Our Association" was given by Mr James Ellison, who said that he was convinced that all the members of the association endeavoured to comply with the city's regulations. (Hear, hear.)
Mr F. Stoner, chairman of the association, responded. He said that the milk supplied by the Liverpool cowkeepers was as pure as could be obtained, for they purchased the best cows. The orders issued by the Local Government Board with respect to tuberculosis were closely followed, and the public could rest assured that they would not be supplied with milk from tuberculous cows, as the medical officer had power to examine the animals and see that they were healthy. (Applause.)
Mr J. Noble gave "Kindred Associations” which was acknowledged by delegates from Leeds and Sheffield Cowkeepers' Associations, Liverpool Butchers' Association, and Royal Lancashire Agricultural Society. The other toasts were “Our Guests" and "Our President." During the evening a ventriloquial sketch was given by Professor Pealin, songs were contributed by Mr H. Chesters and Mr E. Bohane, and pianoforte selections by the Misses Franks.
Liverpool Mercury - Thursday 5th October 1899
LIVERPOOL COWKEEPERS
At a largely attended meeting of the City of Liverpool and District Cowkeepers' Association in the Oddfellows' Hall, St. Anne Street, on Tuesday. It was proposed that a candidate be sought out of the members of the association as a representative of the trade and the ratepayers generally in the City Council. Two members were named as fit and proper persons to place before the electors, but ultimately it was decided to seek the election of one in the forthcoming campaign, one of the members nominated hailing from the north end of the city. It was unanimously agreed to wait upon the gentleman named, and endeavour to secure him as their champion either in Kirkdale or South Walton Wards.
Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser - Friday 3rd September 1909
CANADIAN CATTLE EMBARGO DEPUTATION TO PREMIER - FARMER'S REQUESTS REFUSED.
At the House of Commons on Tuesday the Prime Minister received a deputation representing the co-operative movement and various trading interests on the subject of the importation of Canadian cattle. Mr Asquith was supported by Earl Carrington, President of the Board of Agriculture. Mr Fred Maddison, M.P. introducing the deputation, said the only possible justification for the exclusion of the cattle which a Free Trade Government could advance would be that of disease. The deputation was as anxious as any body of men could possibly be to protect the flocks and herds of the country from disease, but as there was a good deal of doubt as to the danger and prevalence of the disease the deputation asked for an exhaustive inquiry.
Baillie Watson, of Glasgow, chairman of the Free Importation of Cattle Association, said there were no healthier animals on the face of the earth than the Canadian cattle. Canadians felt the embargo to be a slur. Mr Asquith: It applies to the whole world; it not a special slur on Canada. Mr T. Tweddle, chairman of the Parliamentary Committee of the Co-operative Union ; Mr. William Henderson, Perth; and Mr F. Stoner, Liverpool and District Cowkeepers' Association, also spoke.
Premier's Reply
The Prime Minister, in response, said it was little more than a year since he received a similar deputation on the subject. The arguments which had been hitherto regarded by successive administrations as justifying the continuance of the restrictions was that unless they insisted on the slaughter of imported live cattle within a limited time of the day of debarkation, they would have no sufficient safeguard against the introduction of disease into the country. He had always looked with suspicion on that argument, because a protective spirit always clothed itself in more or less plausible disguises, and he had been tempted, sometimes to suspect that this was such a case. But he did not think, after careful inquiry into the facts, that this was an adequate account of the matter. He was prepared to accept the statement that one might go through Canada without discovering any trace of disease in the herds of the country, but it could not be disputed that in the United States, disease had from time to time made its appearance with most disastrous results, and one could not put Canada and the United States for this purpose into two watertight compartments. It was owing to the existence of the long and loosely guarded boundary line and the easy-going disregard for the customs of persons on each side of that line that the Board of Agriculture had not been able to treat the fact that Canada was at any given moment free from disease as being in itself an adequate security. There were really four interests concerned —the Canadian exporter, the persons engaged in transit, the British farmer and dealer, and the consumer. As regarded the British farmer, if the farming community in the country were polled they would be in favour of the existing restriction by an overwhelming majority.
Mr Henderson: So would they be in favour of Protection. (Laughter.)
Mr. Asquith: Perhaps. I am not sure they would.
No Hope of Change.
Continuing, the Premier said he preferred to look at it from the point of view of the consumer, who was really getting a larger proportion of the meat supply from Colonial and foreign sources than ten years ago. He did not feel under the circumstances that the Government was in a position to recede from the policy so pursued. If he thought that there was a possibility of discovering information, which would materially affect their judgment, their request for inquiry would be one deserving very serious consideration. But he was bound to come the conclusion that the material facts were ascertained and he did not think any such inquiry would bring to light facts which would substantially affect their judgment. He made that statement with very great regret for two reasons, because as a very strong Free Trader he was prima facie more adverse to any form of restriction on importation, and also because all his political interests as representing a Scottish agricultural constituency were in their camp. He was not in a position to hold out any hope that there would be any substantial change in the policy, which had been long pursued.
Earl Carrington's Inspiration.
Earl Carrington expressed his agreement with the Premier, and said that it was his advice to the Government that the Premier should make the statement which he had made. The only justification would be either that it was a dire necessity, or that it was absolutely proved to be necessary for the prevention of disease. He admitted there was no foot mouth disease in Canada, but last year in December Canada and this country ran a most terrific risk through the outbreak of disease in Buffalo and Detroit, U.S.A. In fact, the cattle were carried on the Canadian railways. What saved a most terrible catastrophe to Canada and this country was nothing but the extreme vigilance of the Canadian authorities.
Liverpool Echo - Tuesday 24th February 1914
FOOT & MOUTH DISEASE. THE OUTBREAK IN LIVERPOOL. WARNING. THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE'S ORDERS.
The result of the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in two shippons in Liverpool, the Board of Agriculture have prohibited the moving of live cattle within an area of some twenty-five miles of the city. This includes Birkenhead, Bootle, Wallasey, St. Helens, part of Wigan, and Southport, and Ormskirk. First, it was reported that only one affected animal had been discovered, but later inquiries showed that the outbreak is much more serious. When the first case was notified, the veterinary surgeons of the Corporation made all necessary investigations, and the result was to confirm the suspicion that it was a case of the dreaded disease, though an absolute opinion was not given. The Board of Agriculture was communicated with, however, and an inspector of the Board journeyed to Liverpool and returned to London after having satisfied himself that all the regulations are being strictly adhered to. It appears that two shippons are affected, nine animals suffering in one and two in the other. Both the affected dairies were closed immediately the disease was discovered, and last night twenty-three animals housed therein were slaughtered by the departments of the Board Agriculture and the veterinary authorities of Liverpool. Cowkeepers are warned that it is very necessary that the orders of the Board of Agriculture should be strictly carried out, that cattle should be kept standing still and that any suspicion of disease should be at once reported to the authorities. The prohibition order may be a great hardship on dealers, but it is necessary if the outbreak is to be effectively dealt with. It is stated that ten waggon-loads of dairy cattle - about fifty - have arrived from Northern counties, but they will not be allowed to be removed.
No Fresh Cases
Inquiries made in official quarters by an "Echo" representative show that no fresh cases have occurred, and it is hoped that with the prompt measures that have been taken, the spread of disease has been checked. The outbreak, surmised, has been caused through the importation of an infected animal. The public are assured that there is no danger of the milk supply being in any way contaminated. All the milk from the two dairies has been destroyed as a precautionary measure. Mr T. Backhouse, interviewed, stated that the Liverpool and District Cowkeepers', Association were co-operating with the authorities in their efforts to prevent the spread of the disease. All the members had been warned by telephone and otherwise that cattle must not be removed. It was possible, he said, that the animals which had arrived at the Stanley station might be allowed by the Board of Agriculture to be removed in floats, but in any case they would have to be isolated. Mr Backhouse was optimistic. He thought with due precautions the disease would soon be stamped out. There were 7,000 dairy cows housed in the city under conditions which could not be surpassed anywhere in the world. Liverpool was noted for its dairy cows and the healthy surroundings in which they were kept.
Order and the Disease
A well-known Liverpool veterinary surgeon, discussing the outbreak with an Echo representative, stated that the disease could be conveyed in fodder. In his opinion, it had been transmitted to this country from Ireland. He thought that thorough inspection of the areas in Ireland where most of the cattle came from should made, so that the mischief might be coped with before it got to England. All fodder in any area that was found to be affected should be burnt on the farm where the disease was detected. “Ireland”, he asserted, “should be searched from top to bottom, and, if necessary, English inspectors should be sent over to co-operate with inspectors the other side for this purpose. The whole live cattle trade, in my opinion, needs thoroughly reorganising if permanent results are to obtained." The disease, he added, was not necessarily a fatal disease, but contagion was so rapid that the slaughter of animals affected was essential. While the possibility of milk contamination was remote, in view of present precautions, he concluded, "I should advise people to boil their milk to be on the safe side."
Baseless Bootle Scare
It was stated that a number of cattle bought from a Bootle dealer caused some uneasiness, but it has now transpired that they were found not to be in any way affected with the disease. It is understood that one of the animals came from an infected district in the North of England, and made the journey in the same van with the other beasts. The authorities were immediately notified, and the animals were kept under close observation. It is gratifying to learn that there was not the slightest trace of disease amongst them.
Liverpool Echo - Tuesday 24th February 1914
BIRKENHEAD. EFFORTS TO TRACE THE ORIGIN OF THE OUTBREAK.
As stated in the "Echo" last night, a thorough investigation will made this week into the outbreak of cattle disease in Birkenhead. Until the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease has been traced, there is little probability of the Birkenhead lairages being reopened for the reception of livestock. "Echo" representatives learned that an important conference of experts is being held with a view to solving the problem. Opinions vary to the probable source of the infection. On the one hand is the strong feeling prevalent on this side the Channel that the disease transmitted from Ireland, and this view is supported by the fact that cattle very rarely ever are kept in lairages for as long as nine days - the incubation period of the disease. Irish dealers, however, are disposed to the view that the source of the disease is to found in the lairages. A well-known meat trader, speaking of the measures taken by the Board of Agriculture dealing with foot-and-mouth disease, said there was a doubt in the mind of many butchers whether these cases were really genuine. The animals were slaughtered immediately they were suspected, and before it had time to develop.
The view held by butchers was that at least one suspected case should be isolated and the disease allowed to develop, so that no possible question could be raised to its true nature. Naturally, dealers do not look with favour upon this wholesale slaughtering of cattle, and consider it somewhat unnecessary. The methods adopted by the authorities at present tend to curtail the supplies of cattle, and dealers are most anxious that some method of treatment should be adopted which would not necessitate wholesale slaughter, such as serum treatment, which is in vogue on the Continent in regard to pigs. Irish dealers contend that during the last outbreak there was not one authentic case of foot-and-mouth disease traced to Ireland.
Liverpool Echo - Tuesday 23rd June 1914
SEAFORTH MILK SUFFERS FROM TOO MUCH COMPETITION.
Do not buy milk at irregular times or you will get inferior quality. Such was the lesson propounded by the County Magistrates' Court today. Several milk dealers in the Seaforth Division were summoned for selling milk deficient in cream on May 8. Mr Cleaver (for the prosecution) said that the County Council authorities considered that the quality of the milk in the Seaforth division was such that special notice ought to be directed to it. The matter had now been taken up by the Cowkeepers' Association. It had been decided to call a meeting of milk-dealers in order that agreement could be come to for the delivery of milk at more regular intervals.
For some time, he said, there had been a rush on the part of the dealers to get out of the shippons in order to be the "first in the field”. One result of this competition was that the cows were milked at irregular hours, and that the milk was not of the best quality. If the customers did not see their own man they obtained their supply from any other dealer who happened to about, and thereby encouraged the competition. They were not educated to the fact that by asking for milk at extraordinary times they were not guaranteed their money's worth. In view of the cowkeepers' meeting, the magistrates agreed to the withdrawal of the summonses and payment of costs.
Liverpool Echo - Wednesday 10th February 1915
PRICE OF MILK. NO CHANGE TO BE MADE IN LIVERPOOL.
At the annual meeting of the Liverpool and District Cowkeepers' Association, it was decided that the price of the milk sold by members the association remain heretofore, at the uniform price of 4d per quart. In coming to this decision it was felt that a higher price should be charged owing to the increased cost of cattle and feeding stuffs; but the members of the association, being desirous of putting patriotism before profit, decided to bear their share of the burden.
Liverpool Daily Post - Thursday 8th July 1915
MILK DELIVERIES. LIVERPOOL COWKEEPERS AND LABOUR SHORTAGE.
It has been decided by Liverpool Cowkeepers’ Association Committee that from October to April milk will be delivered only once a day, between the hours of 6 a.m. and I2 noon, Sunday and week-days. The shortage of labour is stated to be the chief reason for this action, it being difficult to continue with two deliveries per day. Raising the price milk was also considered and it was stated that this would become necessary owing to best hay having been taken by the forage department of the War Office for the horses at the front. This had caused the price of what was being brought into the market to be 50s per ton more than in normal times; also the scarcity and dearness of dairy cows &c., made profit at the present price small, if any.
Lancashire Evening Post - Thursday 12th August 1915
DEARER MILK IN LIVERPOOL.
The Liverpool Cowkeepers' Association have decided to raise the price of milk a penny per quart from 4d. to 5d., the advance being due to the dearness of dairy cattle and the increase in the price of foodstuffs.
Liverpool Daily Post - Thursday 27th January 1916
DAY TO DAY IN LIVERPOOL.
A farther advance in the price milk is foreshadowed. The Liverpool Cowkeepers’ Association met this week for the formal adoption of a satisfactory report and balance-sheet, together with the re-election of the officers, but the large attendance of the 353 subscribing members indicated more serious business. It was urged that, with the present rising prices of feeding stuffs and the scarcity of dairy cattle, the price of milk could not be maintained much longer at fivepence per quart. The meeting resolved that unless the prices of fodder fell, there could be no alternative to an early advance of the price of milk to sixpence per quart, coupled with the continuance of a single delivery a day, to which the public, recognising the scarcity of labour, had responded willingly.
Liverpool Echo - Monday 2nd October 1916
MILK PRICES.
I have three young children whose staple food is milk, and with a weekly bill of between 6s and 7s how am I to meet the extra cost? Surely there is someone who will take this matter up in the interests of the children of the city, as, generally speaking, mothers have no time to organise protest meetings, &c. If those who can afford to pay the price would generously abstain from using high-priced commodities they would be doing their less fortunate brethren a good turn. Harassed Mother.
"INCREASE JUSTIFIED."
The proposed increase in the price of milk is quite justified. I personally find it much better to make cheese and butter and feed the whey to the pigs than hawk milk from door to door, even though the price is 6d per quart. Three months after war broke out the Cowkeepers' Association decided that to be "patriotic"—mark the word —they would keep milk down to 4d per quart, result —many of the small dairymen went bankrupt. The cowkeepers themselves, being hard hit, called another meeting. This time, to be patriotic to themselves and their creditors, they decided to increase the price of milk by 1d per quart. Even at that figure the business could not be made to pay. The question confronting the cowkeepers and dairymen to-day is not how profit can be got out of the public, but, at the enhanced figure, can they save themselves, their wives, and families from ruin? Rex.
Liverpool Daily Post - Wednesday 28th November 1917
SHILLING MILK. COWKEEPERS ANTICIPATE FAMINE IN MARCH.
A meeting of persons interested in the milk trade in Liverpool, met in the Central Hall, Renshaw-street, last evening, under joint auspices of the Cowkeepers and Dairymen’s Associations to discuss the retail price of milk. Resolution was unanimously passed protesting against the price of milk fixed by the Liverpool Food Control Committee, requesting the committee receive deputation on the cost of milk production in Liverpool; and requesting the committee to put up the price of milk to the maximum 8d a quart allowed by Food Controller.
Mr. John Foster, who presided, said that if the present conditions were allowed to grow the available supply of milk would steadily decrease, and the shortage of today would be the famine of to-morrow. Milk would not be 8d, but 1s a quart in March, and few would be able to get it even at that price. Since the beginning of the war the cost of cows had more than doubled, labour, foodstuffs, hay, and horse keep had all increased proportionately but not the price milk. The town cowkeeper could not now produce milk at less than half crown a gallon. Several speakers suggested that the objection to the maximum price for milk did not come from the public, but from the Food Control Committees.
Mr. George Batty said the cowkeepers should agree to close their premises and not go out on their rounds, and churn their milk. Others present deprecated the uttering of threats, while one who said he was one of the largest cowkeepers in Liverpool, owning thirty-four cows, stated that although he did not pay any rent he was unable to make a farthing profit on a week’s trading with milk at 7d a quart.
Liverpool Echo - Friday 28th December 1917
THE CITY OF LIVERPOOL AND DISTRICT COWKEEPERS' ASSOCIATION. NOTICE.
The Food Control Committee of Liverpool have notified they have fixed the price of milk for January as follows —8d per Quart, 4d per Pint, 2d. Half-Pint and 1d per Gill. The difficulties in having a price for delivery and a price from dairy will thus be removed. It is now requested that where the quantity delivered can be reduced, that this be done, in order that there may be more milk obtainable in the dairies for families resident in populous districts.
Liverpool Daily Post - Friday 10th May 1918
SEVENPENNY MILK? LIVERPOOL COWKEEPERS’ REQUEST.
The Liverpool Food Committee have given a favourable hearing to Liverpool cowkeepers’ contention that they cannot sell milk produced in the city for sixpence per quart without losing money. Their request to be allowed to sell their milk at seven pence, at any rate for the month May, has been referred to London, and a decision may be expected early next week. Liverpool is almost alone in the great cities of the country in having a large number of stall-kept cows within its borders. The number kept in Leeds, Sheffield, and Edinburgh falls very short of those in Liverpool. In normal times a very substantial proportion of the entire milk supply of the city comes from the city shippons, and owing to the stringent inspection both of the cowhouses and the system of handling the milk, the produce, as general rule, is fresher, cleaner and of better quality than that brought in by rail from the farm, and is preferred accordingly.
In August 1914, there were 6,400 cows in the city. The milk produced in the city was 123,000 gallons per week, and the amount brought in was 127,000 gallons per week. Today there are 4,200 cows, producing 75,000 gallons per week, and the amount of railway milk imported is 85,500 gallons per week.
At the present price of milk, 6d per quart, it is admitted that the business of the cowkeepers is threatened with closure on economic grounds, and the authorities who are anxious about the maintenance of the milk supply, as well as preservation of an important city industry, have gone into the circumstances thoroughly.
The case against an increase in the price of milk is that Liverpool adjoins Cheshire towns and areas where milk is being sold at 5d per quart, and that by dependence entirely upon imported milk, that price could be enforced in Liverpool by the expedience of diverting milk from cheese making and by requiring Cheshire farmers, who now send their dairies London, to send them to Liverpool.
The civic authorities have always encouraged city milk production on hygienic grounds, and possibly because of this encouragement Liverpool has always had the best milk supply. Because of the artificial conditions now obtaining in the forage markets, exceptional treatment must be accorded to the cowkeeper, and the question for the city is whether his industry is one worth preserving. The authorities evidently think it is, but the Food Ministry, with whom the final decision lies, and with whom the view of the farmer — always an opponent of the city cowkeeper from purely selfish reasons — may have great weight. Apparently it is not proposed that all milk be sold at 7d per quart, but only that produced in Liverpool shippons.
Liverpool Food Controller is now holding inquiries as to the necessity for increased prices to be paid to producers of milk in certain areas. Any applications that groups of farmers wish to make for such inquiries must be in the hands the Divisional Food Commissioner for their area before such date as may have been specified by him; or, in the absence of such notification, by May 20th.
Liverpool Echo - Saturday 8th June 1918
COWKEEPERS' ASSOCIATION OF LIVERPOOL AND DISTRICT.
Please Note - PRICE OF MILK from Sunday MORNING, the 9th instant, will be 7d per quart until further notice. T. BACKHOUSE
Liverpool Evening Express - Friday 10th March 1939
LIVERPOOL DAIRYMEN OPPOSE BOARD
The Liverpool and District Dairy Farmers’ Association, at a meeting in Liverpool, last night, passed a resolution supporting the National Federation of Milk Producer-Retailers in the dispute with the Milk Marketing Board over the payment to the Board of levies and the filling in of record and return sheets. The chairman of the association, Mr John Foster, denied reports that the Federation was going to call for a strike of milk producers, and to reduce the price of milk.
Liverpool Daily Post - Monday 22 May 1939
MAY PARADE OF HORSES
[Extract from Prize List]
Two-wheeled Turnouts (confined to members of Liverpool Dairy Farmers’ Association): 1. C. F. Swinbank; 2. J. H. Moor and Sons: 3. J. Winn.
Liverpool Daily Post - Thursday 5th December 1940
THE MILK PROBLEM - HOW LIVERPOOL MAY TACKLE IT
Liverpool and District Dairymen are considering how best they can give effect to the 10 per cent cut in milk supplies, especially since they claim that Liverpool’s milk quota is already considerably less than it should be. It is unlikely that the suggestion of missing one day in ten for milk delivery will be generally adopted in Liverpool. Many dairymen consider such scheme impracticable, chiefly because they will be left with milk supplies on their hands for the odd day and also because of the public’s difficulty of conserving milk to tide over the milkless day. Accordingly, there will be no hard and fast rule, and inquiries by the Daily Post yesterday indicated a tendency to leave the rationing of customers in the hands of individual dairymen. The rationing will not apply to necessitous cases—expectant mothers, invalids. &c.—but dairymen will enforce the cut probably by leaving one bottle instead of two or two instead of three, on certain days. Mr Eric S. Browne, secretary of the Liverpool and District Dairymen’s Association, told the Daily Post that in previous shortages dairymen had had to ration their customers, and though there was no definite rule to how this reduction was to be applied, dairymen would probably cut down supplies on certain days. He added that Liverpool’s quota was already below 90 per cent., and representations were being made to the Milk Board. Councillor Stanley Foster, of the Liverpool and District Cowkeepers’ Association, said there were about 200 cowkeepers with their own shippons in an area stretching from Crosby to Prescot, and though some had ample milk supplies, they were keeping smaller dairymen stocked. Farmers could not supply their customers with the quota allowed, and Liverpool had already suffered a reduction in supply.
Liverpool Echo - Friday 21st February 1941
LIVERPOOL MILK - RATIONED FOODSTUFFS PROTEST
Liverpool's unique company of cowkeepers—the city dairymen whose cows are permanently indoors and who yet supply 60,000 gallons of high quality milk each week —are alarmed over the rationing of feeding stuffs and are to-day sending a deputation to the Food Ministry Office at Hutton, near Preston.
The cowkeepers, who number about 300, are combined in the City of Liverpool and District Dairy Farmers’ Association, and they keep about 3,000 cows. Although their cows are always indoors, and have to be fed mainly with manufactured feeding stuffs, they have to maintain a 3½ per cent butter fat content in their milk, and regular inspections ensure that the standard is maintained. Their cows keep up a high rate of supply, and each cow produces an average of about three gallons per day.
Their grievance was expressed to the Echo today by Mr J. L. Hogg, of 48 Willowdale Road, Walton, a member of the deputation of seven which went to Preston to-day. “We cowkeepers have now come under the Government rationing scheme for milk as from the first of this month," said Mr Hogg. Our allocation is roughly a quarter of the amount, which we normally use. My allocation for the month is 8 cwts., whereas I normally use 35 cwts. We are supplied with coupons for meal like a motorist has coupons for his petrol. I had a letter from my suppliers this morning saying that they cannot send any more feeding stuff unless I provide more coupons, and that means there is going to be no food for the cows. We cannot possibly keep the cows on the rations which the Government is allowing, and if this goes on, within two months we shall be out of business. You can’t keep cows and starve them to death. We supply about a third of Liverpool’s milk—a supply which is invaluable in case of a blitz or disorganisation of transport because the cows are already in the city. They are treating us on the same basis as farmers, but our conditions are entirely different. We cannot grow anything to provide feeding stuffs, and we have no grazing land to fall back on. Lord Woolton has told us he wants to keep up the nation’s milk supply, but we cannot possibly do our bit towards this if the present rationing scheme continues."
Liverpool Daily Post - Tuesday 4th November 1941
CUT IN MILK SUPPLIES - SERIOUS SHORTAGE IN NORTH-WEST
A serious shortage of milk supplies in Liverpool and many of the large industrial towns in the North-West Region was discussed in Manchester yesterday by Mr G. J. Parr, Regional Milk Supply Officer to the Ministry of Food, who had a private conference with milk distributors from various parts of the region. Mr Parr afterwards told a Daily Post reporter: ‘‘Reports that I have received reveal that there is a substantial shortage and steps are to be taken to see that this is remedied as soon as possible. The operation of the 5 per cent cut in supplies ordered by the Ministry will, of course, prove helpful to a certain extent, but we shall also have to review the flow of milk throughout the region to bring about adjustments and make supplies more equitable.”
Position in Liverpool
So serious is the shortage of milk in Liverpool, and so heavy are the cuts imposed on supplies, that the Food Executive Officer for the city (Mr P. S. Harvey) has written to the Ministry on behalf of the Food Control Committee, asking for a clarification of the position. The position, which is described as “sudden and mysterious,” as it is only a week since Lord Woolton declared that the milk production of the country was so good that all demands could be met, was disclosed to a Daily Post representative in the course of inquiries in connection with the 5 per cent cut in supplies to healthy adults which came into force yesterday. It was revealed that in many cases the so called 5 per cent cut has become a 10, 20, 30 or even 50 per cent, cut, and that, in fact, before the new regulation came into operation, supplies to certain Liverpool dairymen were already reduced by almost half.
Supplies Diverted
Apparently supplies of milk, which normally come to Liverpool by road and rail from outside the city, have been diverted, but no one seems to know why and whither they have been diverted. Mr Harvey does not know. He confessed that he could not understand the position and produced a copy of a letter, which he sent to the Ministry yesterday. It runs as follows:
"Dear Sir—l have been Instructed by the Food Control Committee to call your attention to the serious cuts which have been made in the supplies of liquid milk to Liverpool dairymen during the past week. I am obtaining precise details of the cuts suffered by each of the main dairymen, but in the case of Harpers’ Dairies. Ltd., who take about 5,000 gallons day, the cut was nearly 50 per cent. I have been in communication with Mr Parr, the Regional Milk Officer, on the matter, but he informs me that he is unable to take any step until the milk supplies fall below the minimum entitlement fixed by the Milk Scheme (i.e. two pints per week for adults who are not regarded as priority cases). Mr Parr also informs me that he cannot get a clear picture of the position in the North West Region until all M.K. 2 and M.K. 2a forms have been received. So far as this office is concerned, however, all necessary forms have been despatched and the work is up to date. It was understood that the minimum entitlement fixed by the Milk Scheme would be approached gradually, and the recent announcement of the Minister of Food that a cut of 5 per cent would take place on Monday November 3, was regarded as a first step in the process of gradual reduction. I feel sure that the people of Liverpool will not complain if they are told that the available supplies of liquid milk necessitate the immediate curtailment throughout the country to the quantites fixed by the Milk Scheme, and that supplies have had to be suddenly dropped to the low figure which it was expected would not be reached until the end of the year. If this is the position, however, it should be made clear by public announcement as It cannot be reconciled with the statement so recently made by the Minister that the cut would not be made until November 3, and then only of 5 per cent. The plain fact is that the cut was made in Liverpool many days before November 3, and was considerably in excess 5 per cent. I am instructed by the Food Control Committee to ask you to give this matter your immediate attention.”
May Become More Acute
Those connected with the trade in Liverpool—and, indeed, all healthy adults who need their milk—are in a state of suspense. One big retailer suggested that supplies may have been diverted from Liverpool to Government factories: another authority—Mr J. L. Hogg, who is on the committee of the Liverpool Cowkeepers’ Association—said that the whole thing was a “mystery” and expressed the opinion that the position would become more acute before it improved. Healthy adults, he said, might soon be getting tinned milk instead of liquid milk. But, here also there was difficulty, he added, for many dealers had not even got their allocation of tinned milk. Some 50 per cent had not even got their licences. “Why this terrific decline in supplies I don’t know,” said Mr J. W. Foster, chairman of the National Federation Milk Producer Retailers. “I cannot understand why the cut in Liverpool supplies has been so severe, and why it is so sudden. Apparently until last Tuesday we were all right, and so were the dairymen.”
Liverpool Daily Post - Tuesday 4th November 1941
LIVERPOOL'S MILK SUPPLY
The cut of 5 per cent in milk supplies, which was to come into force yesterday, has produced strange and irritating muddle. It seems, indeed, as if the cut had actually been made before yesterday, and it was not confined to 5 per cent. Apparently it falls unevenly, and was as much as 50 per cent in some cases. Where the other 50 per cent has gone is obscure, but it would seem as if some places must be receiving more than their supply while Liverpool has to do with less. Such inequality of distribution must, of course, be put right, and with little delay as possible. No doubt it must have been difficult to arrange for a cut of 5 per cent to be evenly applied, but the difficulties might have been foreseen and provided for. It is most important that such a scheme as this should work out equitably. With other foods it is possible to use rationing, and that renders distribution comparatively easy. But milk can hardly be rationed. It is the most perishable of foods and must therefore be passed on to the consumer as quickly as possible. It cannot be kept back even for a day. In these circumstances only a communal method like the 5 per cent cut seems practicable. But this ought to be fair, and in Liverpool so far fairness has not been achieved. That obviously must be put right.
Liverpool Echo - Thursday 4th February 1943
MILK DELIVERIES - DAIRY FARMERS APPROVE LIVERPOOL PLAN
The Liverpool Dairy Farmers’ Association, which has about 180 members who produce and sell something like 8,000 gallons of milk per day within the city boundaries, has agreed to approve the new rationalisation scheme for milk deliveries, providing that the trading interests of producer-retailer are safeguarded now and after the war. Mr. S. Thwaite, of Aigburth, secretary of the association, told the Echo that members had agreed to co-operate in the scheme purely as a war-time measure. "We approve it on the understanding that our gallonage remains the same; that is, that we shall continue to supply the same amount of milk as before. We also wish it to be understood that customers whom we lose through the regrouping scheme shall be ‘held in trust' for us by the new supplier, so that the question of trade organisation may remain open for discussion after the war without prejudice."
Liverpool Echo - Friday 12 February 1943
NEW MILK SCHEME “OPERATING NORMALLY AND WELL”
The new milk rationalisation scheme evolved by the Liverpool Milk Retailers’ Association and required by the Ministry of Food, has now been in operation nearly a fortnight. Mr P. S. Harvey, Liverpool’s Deputy Food Executive Officer, thinks the scheme is now operating normally and well. “As could be expected, the transfer of hundreds of thousands of customers from one retailer to another necessitated the straightening-out of many difficulties,” he told the Echo today. “Consumers in some areas were unfortunately without milk for a day or two, until the retailers and their ‘rounds’ men, women, and boys had become acquainted with their new rounds, their customers and requirements. But, on the whole, the public were very helpful and restrained, and at the end of the first week complaints and inquiries had practically disappeared at the Food Office. “The milk retailers have entered into the new scheme with a helpful spirit, and they have done their utmost to meet the requirements of the public."
The distributing scheme has brought its problems, but in view of the vast ramifications of it on Merseyside, it is considered to have worked fairly satisfactorily. General opinion of those officially concerned with the new operations is that time will bring its lessons and the eradications of faults. Notice has been taken of the circumstances of specific cases in which people were without deliveries of milk during the first day or two, but events have shown that the majority of “break-downs” have been the result of inefficient filling-in of official forms by the trade” itself. Given another week or two I think the scheme will be beneficial to both customer and distributor,”
Mr S. Thwaite, secretary of the Liverpool Dairy Farmers’ Association, told the Echo. “I know there are some things to be ironed out yet and I do ask the public to show a little forbearance. A host of official forms have had to be filled in, and mistakes, faults in detail, easily arise. I think there is nothing against the main conception.” Mr P. S. Harvey, the Deputy Food Controller for Liverpool, said: “It would appear that some people have experienced difficulty on these first few days in obtaining their deliveries, but this is one of the natural problems of a vast reorganisation. Most retailers have had to reorganise their rounds system, and it has entailed a deal of work. I think the problems will gradually solve themselves. Already a number of cases have been cleared up satisfactorily.”
Liverpool Echo – Wednesday 12th December 1945
LIKE OLD TIMES, SAID FARMERS – FAT CATTLE DISPLAY AGAIN
It is nearly seven years since the Liverpool and District Livestock Society held a show, and it is evidence of the Society’s vitality that it is able to organise such a creditable display as that opened at Stanley Cattle Market this morning, only four months after the end of hostilities. “Just like old times," was the remark heard among the breeders, dairymen, and general public, as they moved from pen to pen admiring, as well they might, the 280 entries of fat and dairy cattle, calves and pigs. Another comment, coming from visitors not in the business, related to the prime condition of the fatted beasts, and more than one was overheard to inquire how such feeding-up had been managed, and why beef of this quality was not seen in the shops.
The stock, non-pedigree, is scheduled in 32 classes, and in addition to 18 championship cups and trophies, prize money totalling £5OO is offered. Dairy cattle were of special interest, as showing the endeavours of local dairy farmers to rear high-class stock by which to provide the public with wholesome supplies of fresh milk. In this section, a milking trials competition is being closely followed, the quality and quantity of the yield being the test. The City Analyst (Professor W. H. Roberts) is the adjudicator. Prizes in all classes will be presented late this afternoon by Councillor Mrs J Waterworth.
In the dairy cattle there are 159 entries – 50 per cent, above pre-war figures. There is also an interesting section for implements. The Ministries of Agriculture and Food have attractive stalls, and advice on problems affecting farming and milk production is offered freely. Girls from the Ministry of Agriculture demonstrated practical milk testing as carried out in the Government’s laboratories under the Milk Advisory Scheme. Mr Jefferies, war agricultural feeding stuffs and milk production officer, attended to give advice in feeding for milk production. From, the Ministry of Food’s advice centre in School Lane, Liverpool, two young women experts are giving demonstrations in the preparation of Christmas sweets, as well as advice on cookery questions generally.
The opening ceremony was performed by the Lord Mayor (Alderman Luke Hogan), who was accompanied by the Lady Mayoress (Mrs. Hogan), Major Bennett (chairman of the Markets Committee), and others. The Lord Mayor commented that it said a great deal for the courage and initiative of the committee, that they had decided to resuscitate this show and all that it meant, not merely to those who took part in it, but to the city as a whole, which relied considerably upon its markets, abattoir, and kindred societies represented there. “I read to-day that farmers are expressing apprehension regarding the Government’s policy and are afraid of the dread word, nationalisation, fearing that it may be applied to their industry. I know some of the members of the Government, and I have never been able to accuse them of lack of courage, but any Government which would have the pluck to try to nationalise the farming industry would, I think, require a certificate from the nearest mental home.” The Government realised that great individual initiative was required in getting the best out of the land. Although it was a good thing that the wages of those engaged in this industry had risen to a fairly decent level, they could not be maintained unless the product of the soil enabled the industry to be run in an efficient manner and allowed reasonable profit from the work put into it.
Speaking at a luncheon afterwards. Major Bennett, who is chairman of the society’s executive committee, said that this was the first time in their existence that they had started with balance on the right side.
Liverpool Echo – Thursday 11 December 1947
TOOK THE LOT – A LIVERPOOL DAIRY FARMER’S REMARKABLE SUCCESS
Cows from the herd of a Liverpool city dairy farmer had remarkable successes at the Liverpool and District Livestock Society's Christmas show, reported to have been the first occasion in the history of this show when one exhibitor has taken all the championship prizes. The proud owner is Mr Simon Thwaite of 85 Aigburth Road. His cows won:
FARMING PRODUCE FOR LARGE TOWNS.
Of late years the demand for farm produce of all kinds in large towns has enormously increased; and in addition to the consumption in such places as Liverpool, a great export trade in grain, vegetables, and high-class cattle has also sprung up. To meet this new condition of things, various markets and auction marts, where the seller and the purchaser may easily meet, have been established. Among the most necessary of these places, particularly in the suburbs of Liverpool, where so vast a population now reside, are those which offer facilities for the disposal of those animals - including cows - which are brought in such large numbers here, and upon which the public rely mainly for their milk supply. This want has been specially felt in the districts of Wavertree, West Derby, Everton, and Kirkdale. To meet it, an effort is made by Mr Thomas Carr, a gentleman well known in connection with agricultural matters in this part of Lancashire. Mr Carr has opened in Breck Road a mart and auction yard for the disposal chiefly of dairy cows. This place was formally opened on Saturday, and there attended on the occasion several of our leading local agriculturists and tradesmen. Mr R. Webster, of Litherland, presided, and he was supported by Messrs Churchwarden, C. W. Boote, T. Brunt, R. Washington, R. Musker Deans (auctioneer at Lucas's Repository, who occupied the vice chair), W. Rudd (solicitor to the Liverpool Cowkeepers' Association), Robert Mawdsley (secretary to the Ormskirk, Southport and Bootle Agricultural Society), T. Lloyd (managing director of the United Omnibus and Tramway Company, Limited), R. Woods, G. Wynne, R. F. Anderton, P. Cuthbert, J. C. Williams, lnnes, J. Motuma (secretary of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), M. William (superintendent of the Liverpool Fire Brigade), R. C. Yelland, P. Laycock, Robertson, and others.
After the usual loyal and patriotic toasts had been given, the Chairman proposed the toast of "The Agricultural Interests," which was received with much enthusiasm. He said few contemplated the importance of the agricultural interest in the country, and he was afraid that there was scarcely any other interest that obtained less attention. (Hear, hear.) Yet it could be proved that the agricultural interests of Great Britain 'were four times greater than all the manufacturing interests of the country’ and they would see this when he told them one item of the agricultural interest of a country paid something between 90 and 100 million a year. When complaints were made it was the fashion of some people to say, "Oh, it is only the farmers!” But those who make this remark forgot the very large interests at stake: that the failure of a harvest here resulted in the going out or remaining in the country of a very large sum of money (hear, hear); and that the difference, between a good and bad harvest was the going out or remaining in the country of about 15 million of money. He thought they would all declare the success of the agricultural interests of the country, and in such a company - assembled to inaugurate an undertaking intimately connected with that interest - the toast would be a welcome one. The toast was drunk amid much applause.
Mr Deans (the vice-chairman) responded. He gave an interesting resume of the progress of agriculture and dairy farming in England and Scotland, and mentioned that 100 million of money was obtained from the sale of hay alone. He wished Mr Carr success in the undertaking in which he had so pluckily engaged. The Chairman gave "The Commerce of Liverpool". He spoke of the great growth of the city, its vast increase of population, and the wonderful development of its commerce. As illustrating the demand which the change of circumstances brought about for agricultural produce here, he said that he remembered - and he was not an old man - the time when he brought two sacks of cabbages in a cart to Liverpool, and could not sell them; now he could without difficulty sell two cart loads; and other farmers' experiences were the same.
Mr Brunt, in responding, alluded to the progress that Everton had made, and said that the opening of Mr Carr's mart would meet a great public want.
The Chairman proposed “Success to Carr's Auction Yard." He said that such a place as had been established by the enterprise of Mr Carr was much needed, for a great number of cows were brought here, especially from the north, for sale. Hitherto there had been little facilities for their disposal. Mr Carr had now furnished that accommodation, and he was sure that that company and Mr Carr's many friends and neighbour wished him success. (Applause.)
Mr Carr, who was most cordially greeted, said in reply “I feel greatly obliged for your hearty response to this toast, and personally thank every gentleman. I have always taken a great interest in the success of cowkeeping and farming, and would do and sacrifice almost anything to serve their purpose. It is universally allowed that self-interest is the great actuating principle in almost every transaction in life. As an old cowkeeper and farmer, I have for some years seen the great want of a weekly market in Liverpool to sell by auction dairy cattle and farm produce (hear, hear) and often entreated some of my friends to join me in this undertaking. Although they agreed with me they declined to embark in the enterprise. After mature consideration, I determined to grasp the nettle firmly myself, and the result you see before you. I hope by persevering industry and determination to make it successful. The profits of dairy farming and cowkeeping depend greatly upon the health of cattle, selection, and management, and on the details of dairy management. No person hails with greater pleasure the power acquired by Government to deal with cattle disease than town dairymen. The local authorities in Liverpool have put in force the full powers of the orders from the Privy Council, with the gratifying result that out of the thousands of town-kept cows in Liverpool not a single case of cattle disease has been known for nearly two years. (Hear, hear.) The great curse to dairy farming has always been cattle plagues, pleuro-pneumonia, and foot-and-mouth disease. (Hear, hear.) In no town in England are so many cows kept in town shippons as in Liverpool and suburbs and with much success to the owners. (Applause.) I have carefully computed the number at 12,000. You cannot find land so well and profitably cultivated and with that amount of intelligence within a radius of 20 miles of any town in the country as Liverpool. And why? It is the great demand for all kinds of produce by cowkeepers. The interests of Liverpool cowkeepers and local farmers are so interwoven, the interest of one is the gain to the other. The great number of dairy cows kept in Liverpool, South Lancashire, and Cheshire used to be the old fashioned long-horn and Welsh cattle but now they are almost wholly shorthorns brought from the sound, healthy, hillside farms and rich valleys of Cumberland, Westmoreland, North Lancashire and West Riding Of Yorkshire. They are good milch cows, with a great aptitude to lay on flesh at the close of their milking career, which are the profits on which dairy farmers depend. A continued improvement in those districts is always going on. An extraordinary demand has recently sprung up by all town dairymen for these cows, which cannot be met. It would amply repay landlords and farmers in districts where dairy-cow breeding is only a secondary consideration. A good cow is £5 more for the dairy than the slaughterhouse. (Applause.) Liverpool has been without a market for dairy cows since the late old John Sharp used to travel them a three days' journey, shod with plates, from Skipton, and show them where Lime Street station is built. The nearest market at which Liverpool cowkeepers and Cheshire farmers can be supplied is Preston and district. I hope the inauguration of these new premises will be a success, and that every week a good supply will ensue. ("Hear, hear," and applause.)
Mr Carr proposed "Success to the Cowkeepers' Association", to which Mr Rudd replied.
During the afternoon the company - many of them skilled in such matters – inspected the premises, and were most favourably impressed with their construction, magnitude, excellent arrangements, capital ventilation and entire adaptability for the purpose in view.
Liverpool Mercury - Wednesday 3rd January 1883
THE COWKEEPERS' ASSOCIATION AND THE MARKETS COMMITTEE.
The following is a copy of resolutions recently sent to the Markets Committee by the Liverpool and District Cowkeepers' Association:
"1. That the North Haymarket should be closed at one o'clock p.m. as hitherto for the sale of hay, straw, and that all sales after that time be strictly prohibited.
2. That the market be kept open for the sale of grass and other green crops only until two o'clock p.m. during the months of June, July, and August.
3. That increased market accommodation is urgently required for the farmers for the sale of agricultural produce.
4. That, taking into consideration the present method of setting up unsold produce in the open air, by which it deteriorates and is a considerable loss to both vendor and consumer, it is desirable that accommodation be provided within the market under cover for the setting up all sold produce.
5. That the sale of produce in the streets adjoining the market be strictly prohibited.
6. That, considering the present unsatisfactory use made of the yard known as Blezard's yard, the committee should acquire power, either by purchase or otherwise, to discontinue it being used as a place to expose produce for sale."
In reply to the above, the Markets Committee resolved: "That the town clerk inform the memorialists that the committee are willing to recommend to the Council the following alterations. That the market be closed for the sale of hay, straw, &c., all the year round, at two o'clock instead of one p.m., as heretofore: that in the months of June, July, August and September, the markets shall be open until three o'clock p.m. for the sale of green crops only, instead of two o'clock, as heretofore; that unsold produce shall be allowed to remain in the market, under cover, from Saturday until two o'clock p.m. on the following Monday, on payment of a second toll; and that the committee cannot recommend any alteration in the tolls in the case of hampers.
On the 1st instant the Cowkeepers' Association held a meeting, when it was decided to reply as follows:- "We, the members of the Liverpool and District Cowkeepers' Association, beg to thank you for the consideration you have given to the suggestions forwarded by us to you on the 26th ultimo, and regret to find you are unable to accede to them, especially as we find that our suggestions are identical with the wishes of the Farmers', and also the Cart owners' Association. At a meeting of our association called for the evening, to consider the recommendations proposed to be submitted to the Council by the Markets Committee, it was unanimously resolved to urge the Markets Committee to reconsider the matter, and to state the following reasons why we think the suggestions should be agreed to.
1. It appears that both buyer and seller are agreed that one o'clock is quite late enough for closing the market, and gives ample time for all business requirements.
2. We find by experience that the greater part of the business is done in the last half hour before closing the market, and can be done equally as well from 12:30 to one o'clock as from 1:30 to two o'clock.
3. It is highly important to cowkeepers to have the produce they buy in the market delivered early, as by far the greater part of them commence milking from 2:30 to three o'clock and their time from then till evening is fully occupied with milking and selling their milk.
4. It is highly important to the farmers to sell and deliver their produce early, so that their men will have time to load manure and be home with their horses in reasonable time.
5. That if the recommendations of the Markets Committee be carried out they will reduce the tolls of the market, as the greater part of the cowkeepers will have to dispense with the market and buy their hay, straw, grass, &c., from the farmer, to be delivered direct from the farm to their place of business, without coming to the market.
6. With respect to the concession for leaving unsold produce in the market from Saturday to Monday, it is practically useless, there being no market on Monday for the kind of produce usually left unsold.
(Signed) JOHN HOGGARTH, Secretary."
Liverpool Mercury - Wednesday 25th April 1883
LIVERPOOL COWKEEPERS
A general meeting of the Liverpool and District Cowkeepers Association was held on Monday night at the Haymarket Hotel, Juvenal-street, Mr R. Brownlow presiding. On the motion of Mr J. Verity, seconded by Mr W. H. Hanson, the sum of £3 was voted towards the special prizes for Liverpool dairy cattle at the forthcoming Royal Manchester, Liverpool, and North Lancashire Show. The chairman and secretary were requested to suggest to the local committee of the show the desirability of giving £10 for an essay on the best mode of Liverpool cowkeeping, and prizes of £10 and £5 for the cleanest and best-managed shippons of dairy cows. Mr T. Carr moved and Mr J. Benson seconded, that a vote of thanks be sent to Inspector Luya and Mr Reynolds, V.S., for their promptness, impartiality and energy in carrying out the restrictions of the Privy Council during the recent attack of foot-and-mouth disease.
Liverpool Mercury - Thursday 27th February 1890
WATERED MILK - TO THE EDITORS OF THE LIVERPOOL MERCURY.
Gentlemen, - Adverting to your report under this heading of the case in which a milk dealer at Wavertree was fined by Mr Raffles for "selling adulterated milk to the Royal Infirmary", and in which it was alleged, in defence, that the milk was watered “for the purpose of throwing up the cream", and that there was not a single milk-dealer in Liverpool who did not "water his milk," I should be obliged if you would allow me to point out:
1. That in the trade "Cowkeepers" and "Milk dealers" are quite separate and distinct.
2. That whether the statements in defence be true or not, so far as regards the class of people known as milk dealers, i.e. those persons who merely retail country milk, and are not producers by their own cattle as the cowkeepers are, such statements are certainly untrue in regard to Liverpool cowkeepers, who do not require to water their milk for any purpose whatever.
3. The association on behalf of which I write feels it necessary to give an emphatic contradiction to the statements of the Wavertree milk dealer, which are calculated to bring into disrepute a very useful, hard-working, and honourable body of tradesmen.
John Verity, Chairman, Cowkeepers' Association. 42, Almond Street.
Liverpool Mercury - Friday 14th April 1899
LIVERPOOL COWKEEPERS' ASSOCIATION.
The second annual dinner of the city of Liverpool and District Cowkeepers' Association was held last evening in the Bear's Paw, Lord Street. About 150 members and delegates sat down to a well-served repast. Alderman John Houlding J.P., president, was in the chair, and amongst those present were Mr W. R. Brewster (Mayor of Bootle), Alderman Paull, Mr W. Madden, Captain Denton, C.C., Mr W. Roberts, C.C., Mr J. G. Taggart, C.C., Mr James Ellison, Mr F. Stoner, Mr W. Ramsden, Mr J. Noble, Mr H. Snowden, D.C., Mr W. Rudd, Mr A. Shelmerdine, C.C., Mr T. Backhouse (secretary), &a.
After the loyal toasts, the Secretary announced that letters regretting absence had been received from the Lord Mayor, Mr W. H. Long, M.P., the Hon. Arthur Stanley, M.P., the town-clerk, the medical officer of health, the chairman of the Health Committee, and the Chairman of the Markets Committee, &c.-
Mr W. Madden submitted the toast of “The City and Trade of Liverpool". He expressed the hope that the city would be favoured with great prosperity, that the time would soon come when mills would be seen working in the neighbourhood, and that Liverpool would be the channel through which the commerce of the world would pass. (Hear, hear.) He alluded to the necessity of the cowkeepers' business and the importance of the people securing a good milk supply if their health was to be studied. (Applause.)
Alderman Paull, in responding, trusted that Liverpool's trade in the future would progress as it had done in the past; and he added no trade was more entitled to share in that prosperity than the cowkeepers. (Hear, hear.)
Captain Denton, C.C., paid a compliment to the way in which the cowkeepers conducted their business. They supplied good milk to the inhabitants, and a good feeling existed between the trade and the Corporation. (Hear, hear.)
Councillor W. Roberts said that he was sure they were all glad to belong to the most progressive city in the kingdom and they all rejoiced to know that the trade of the city had never been better than it had been during the past six or eight months. (Applause.)
Councillor Taggart also responded. He said that as a member of the Health Committee he knew that the conditions under which the cowkeepers laboured were not only a pleasure to them, but to those who for the time being were placed over them in municipal government. (Applause.) The medical officer of health had that day said that the shippons in Liverpool were a credit to the city. (Applause.)
The toast of "Our Association" was given by Mr James Ellison, who said that he was convinced that all the members of the association endeavoured to comply with the city's regulations. (Hear, hear.)
Mr F. Stoner, chairman of the association, responded. He said that the milk supplied by the Liverpool cowkeepers was as pure as could be obtained, for they purchased the best cows. The orders issued by the Local Government Board with respect to tuberculosis were closely followed, and the public could rest assured that they would not be supplied with milk from tuberculous cows, as the medical officer had power to examine the animals and see that they were healthy. (Applause.)
Mr J. Noble gave "Kindred Associations” which was acknowledged by delegates from Leeds and Sheffield Cowkeepers' Associations, Liverpool Butchers' Association, and Royal Lancashire Agricultural Society. The other toasts were “Our Guests" and "Our President." During the evening a ventriloquial sketch was given by Professor Pealin, songs were contributed by Mr H. Chesters and Mr E. Bohane, and pianoforte selections by the Misses Franks.
Liverpool Mercury - Thursday 5th October 1899
LIVERPOOL COWKEEPERS
At a largely attended meeting of the City of Liverpool and District Cowkeepers' Association in the Oddfellows' Hall, St. Anne Street, on Tuesday. It was proposed that a candidate be sought out of the members of the association as a representative of the trade and the ratepayers generally in the City Council. Two members were named as fit and proper persons to place before the electors, but ultimately it was decided to seek the election of one in the forthcoming campaign, one of the members nominated hailing from the north end of the city. It was unanimously agreed to wait upon the gentleman named, and endeavour to secure him as their champion either in Kirkdale or South Walton Wards.
Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser - Friday 3rd September 1909
CANADIAN CATTLE EMBARGO DEPUTATION TO PREMIER - FARMER'S REQUESTS REFUSED.
At the House of Commons on Tuesday the Prime Minister received a deputation representing the co-operative movement and various trading interests on the subject of the importation of Canadian cattle. Mr Asquith was supported by Earl Carrington, President of the Board of Agriculture. Mr Fred Maddison, M.P. introducing the deputation, said the only possible justification for the exclusion of the cattle which a Free Trade Government could advance would be that of disease. The deputation was as anxious as any body of men could possibly be to protect the flocks and herds of the country from disease, but as there was a good deal of doubt as to the danger and prevalence of the disease the deputation asked for an exhaustive inquiry.
Baillie Watson, of Glasgow, chairman of the Free Importation of Cattle Association, said there were no healthier animals on the face of the earth than the Canadian cattle. Canadians felt the embargo to be a slur. Mr Asquith: It applies to the whole world; it not a special slur on Canada. Mr T. Tweddle, chairman of the Parliamentary Committee of the Co-operative Union ; Mr. William Henderson, Perth; and Mr F. Stoner, Liverpool and District Cowkeepers' Association, also spoke.
Premier's Reply
The Prime Minister, in response, said it was little more than a year since he received a similar deputation on the subject. The arguments which had been hitherto regarded by successive administrations as justifying the continuance of the restrictions was that unless they insisted on the slaughter of imported live cattle within a limited time of the day of debarkation, they would have no sufficient safeguard against the introduction of disease into the country. He had always looked with suspicion on that argument, because a protective spirit always clothed itself in more or less plausible disguises, and he had been tempted, sometimes to suspect that this was such a case. But he did not think, after careful inquiry into the facts, that this was an adequate account of the matter. He was prepared to accept the statement that one might go through Canada without discovering any trace of disease in the herds of the country, but it could not be disputed that in the United States, disease had from time to time made its appearance with most disastrous results, and one could not put Canada and the United States for this purpose into two watertight compartments. It was owing to the existence of the long and loosely guarded boundary line and the easy-going disregard for the customs of persons on each side of that line that the Board of Agriculture had not been able to treat the fact that Canada was at any given moment free from disease as being in itself an adequate security. There were really four interests concerned —the Canadian exporter, the persons engaged in transit, the British farmer and dealer, and the consumer. As regarded the British farmer, if the farming community in the country were polled they would be in favour of the existing restriction by an overwhelming majority.
Mr Henderson: So would they be in favour of Protection. (Laughter.)
Mr. Asquith: Perhaps. I am not sure they would.
No Hope of Change.
Continuing, the Premier said he preferred to look at it from the point of view of the consumer, who was really getting a larger proportion of the meat supply from Colonial and foreign sources than ten years ago. He did not feel under the circumstances that the Government was in a position to recede from the policy so pursued. If he thought that there was a possibility of discovering information, which would materially affect their judgment, their request for inquiry would be one deserving very serious consideration. But he was bound to come the conclusion that the material facts were ascertained and he did not think any such inquiry would bring to light facts which would substantially affect their judgment. He made that statement with very great regret for two reasons, because as a very strong Free Trader he was prima facie more adverse to any form of restriction on importation, and also because all his political interests as representing a Scottish agricultural constituency were in their camp. He was not in a position to hold out any hope that there would be any substantial change in the policy, which had been long pursued.
Earl Carrington's Inspiration.
Earl Carrington expressed his agreement with the Premier, and said that it was his advice to the Government that the Premier should make the statement which he had made. The only justification would be either that it was a dire necessity, or that it was absolutely proved to be necessary for the prevention of disease. He admitted there was no foot mouth disease in Canada, but last year in December Canada and this country ran a most terrific risk through the outbreak of disease in Buffalo and Detroit, U.S.A. In fact, the cattle were carried on the Canadian railways. What saved a most terrible catastrophe to Canada and this country was nothing but the extreme vigilance of the Canadian authorities.
Liverpool Echo - Tuesday 24th February 1914
FOOT & MOUTH DISEASE. THE OUTBREAK IN LIVERPOOL. WARNING. THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE'S ORDERS.
The result of the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in two shippons in Liverpool, the Board of Agriculture have prohibited the moving of live cattle within an area of some twenty-five miles of the city. This includes Birkenhead, Bootle, Wallasey, St. Helens, part of Wigan, and Southport, and Ormskirk. First, it was reported that only one affected animal had been discovered, but later inquiries showed that the outbreak is much more serious. When the first case was notified, the veterinary surgeons of the Corporation made all necessary investigations, and the result was to confirm the suspicion that it was a case of the dreaded disease, though an absolute opinion was not given. The Board of Agriculture was communicated with, however, and an inspector of the Board journeyed to Liverpool and returned to London after having satisfied himself that all the regulations are being strictly adhered to. It appears that two shippons are affected, nine animals suffering in one and two in the other. Both the affected dairies were closed immediately the disease was discovered, and last night twenty-three animals housed therein were slaughtered by the departments of the Board Agriculture and the veterinary authorities of Liverpool. Cowkeepers are warned that it is very necessary that the orders of the Board of Agriculture should be strictly carried out, that cattle should be kept standing still and that any suspicion of disease should be at once reported to the authorities. The prohibition order may be a great hardship on dealers, but it is necessary if the outbreak is to be effectively dealt with. It is stated that ten waggon-loads of dairy cattle - about fifty - have arrived from Northern counties, but they will not be allowed to be removed.
No Fresh Cases
Inquiries made in official quarters by an "Echo" representative show that no fresh cases have occurred, and it is hoped that with the prompt measures that have been taken, the spread of disease has been checked. The outbreak, surmised, has been caused through the importation of an infected animal. The public are assured that there is no danger of the milk supply being in any way contaminated. All the milk from the two dairies has been destroyed as a precautionary measure. Mr T. Backhouse, interviewed, stated that the Liverpool and District Cowkeepers', Association were co-operating with the authorities in their efforts to prevent the spread of the disease. All the members had been warned by telephone and otherwise that cattle must not be removed. It was possible, he said, that the animals which had arrived at the Stanley station might be allowed by the Board of Agriculture to be removed in floats, but in any case they would have to be isolated. Mr Backhouse was optimistic. He thought with due precautions the disease would soon be stamped out. There were 7,000 dairy cows housed in the city under conditions which could not be surpassed anywhere in the world. Liverpool was noted for its dairy cows and the healthy surroundings in which they were kept.
Order and the Disease
A well-known Liverpool veterinary surgeon, discussing the outbreak with an Echo representative, stated that the disease could be conveyed in fodder. In his opinion, it had been transmitted to this country from Ireland. He thought that thorough inspection of the areas in Ireland where most of the cattle came from should made, so that the mischief might be coped with before it got to England. All fodder in any area that was found to be affected should be burnt on the farm where the disease was detected. “Ireland”, he asserted, “should be searched from top to bottom, and, if necessary, English inspectors should be sent over to co-operate with inspectors the other side for this purpose. The whole live cattle trade, in my opinion, needs thoroughly reorganising if permanent results are to obtained." The disease, he added, was not necessarily a fatal disease, but contagion was so rapid that the slaughter of animals affected was essential. While the possibility of milk contamination was remote, in view of present precautions, he concluded, "I should advise people to boil their milk to be on the safe side."
Baseless Bootle Scare
It was stated that a number of cattle bought from a Bootle dealer caused some uneasiness, but it has now transpired that they were found not to be in any way affected with the disease. It is understood that one of the animals came from an infected district in the North of England, and made the journey in the same van with the other beasts. The authorities were immediately notified, and the animals were kept under close observation. It is gratifying to learn that there was not the slightest trace of disease amongst them.
Liverpool Echo - Tuesday 24th February 1914
BIRKENHEAD. EFFORTS TO TRACE THE ORIGIN OF THE OUTBREAK.
As stated in the "Echo" last night, a thorough investigation will made this week into the outbreak of cattle disease in Birkenhead. Until the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease has been traced, there is little probability of the Birkenhead lairages being reopened for the reception of livestock. "Echo" representatives learned that an important conference of experts is being held with a view to solving the problem. Opinions vary to the probable source of the infection. On the one hand is the strong feeling prevalent on this side the Channel that the disease transmitted from Ireland, and this view is supported by the fact that cattle very rarely ever are kept in lairages for as long as nine days - the incubation period of the disease. Irish dealers, however, are disposed to the view that the source of the disease is to found in the lairages. A well-known meat trader, speaking of the measures taken by the Board of Agriculture dealing with foot-and-mouth disease, said there was a doubt in the mind of many butchers whether these cases were really genuine. The animals were slaughtered immediately they were suspected, and before it had time to develop.
The view held by butchers was that at least one suspected case should be isolated and the disease allowed to develop, so that no possible question could be raised to its true nature. Naturally, dealers do not look with favour upon this wholesale slaughtering of cattle, and consider it somewhat unnecessary. The methods adopted by the authorities at present tend to curtail the supplies of cattle, and dealers are most anxious that some method of treatment should be adopted which would not necessitate wholesale slaughter, such as serum treatment, which is in vogue on the Continent in regard to pigs. Irish dealers contend that during the last outbreak there was not one authentic case of foot-and-mouth disease traced to Ireland.
Liverpool Echo - Tuesday 23rd June 1914
SEAFORTH MILK SUFFERS FROM TOO MUCH COMPETITION.
Do not buy milk at irregular times or you will get inferior quality. Such was the lesson propounded by the County Magistrates' Court today. Several milk dealers in the Seaforth Division were summoned for selling milk deficient in cream on May 8. Mr Cleaver (for the prosecution) said that the County Council authorities considered that the quality of the milk in the Seaforth division was such that special notice ought to be directed to it. The matter had now been taken up by the Cowkeepers' Association. It had been decided to call a meeting of milk-dealers in order that agreement could be come to for the delivery of milk at more regular intervals.
For some time, he said, there had been a rush on the part of the dealers to get out of the shippons in order to be the "first in the field”. One result of this competition was that the cows were milked at irregular hours, and that the milk was not of the best quality. If the customers did not see their own man they obtained their supply from any other dealer who happened to about, and thereby encouraged the competition. They were not educated to the fact that by asking for milk at extraordinary times they were not guaranteed their money's worth. In view of the cowkeepers' meeting, the magistrates agreed to the withdrawal of the summonses and payment of costs.
Liverpool Echo - Wednesday 10th February 1915
PRICE OF MILK. NO CHANGE TO BE MADE IN LIVERPOOL.
At the annual meeting of the Liverpool and District Cowkeepers' Association, it was decided that the price of the milk sold by members the association remain heretofore, at the uniform price of 4d per quart. In coming to this decision it was felt that a higher price should be charged owing to the increased cost of cattle and feeding stuffs; but the members of the association, being desirous of putting patriotism before profit, decided to bear their share of the burden.
Liverpool Daily Post - Thursday 8th July 1915
MILK DELIVERIES. LIVERPOOL COWKEEPERS AND LABOUR SHORTAGE.
It has been decided by Liverpool Cowkeepers’ Association Committee that from October to April milk will be delivered only once a day, between the hours of 6 a.m. and I2 noon, Sunday and week-days. The shortage of labour is stated to be the chief reason for this action, it being difficult to continue with two deliveries per day. Raising the price milk was also considered and it was stated that this would become necessary owing to best hay having been taken by the forage department of the War Office for the horses at the front. This had caused the price of what was being brought into the market to be 50s per ton more than in normal times; also the scarcity and dearness of dairy cows &c., made profit at the present price small, if any.
Lancashire Evening Post - Thursday 12th August 1915
DEARER MILK IN LIVERPOOL.
The Liverpool Cowkeepers' Association have decided to raise the price of milk a penny per quart from 4d. to 5d., the advance being due to the dearness of dairy cattle and the increase in the price of foodstuffs.
Liverpool Daily Post - Thursday 27th January 1916
DAY TO DAY IN LIVERPOOL.
A farther advance in the price milk is foreshadowed. The Liverpool Cowkeepers’ Association met this week for the formal adoption of a satisfactory report and balance-sheet, together with the re-election of the officers, but the large attendance of the 353 subscribing members indicated more serious business. It was urged that, with the present rising prices of feeding stuffs and the scarcity of dairy cattle, the price of milk could not be maintained much longer at fivepence per quart. The meeting resolved that unless the prices of fodder fell, there could be no alternative to an early advance of the price of milk to sixpence per quart, coupled with the continuance of a single delivery a day, to which the public, recognising the scarcity of labour, had responded willingly.
Liverpool Echo - Monday 2nd October 1916
MILK PRICES.
I have three young children whose staple food is milk, and with a weekly bill of between 6s and 7s how am I to meet the extra cost? Surely there is someone who will take this matter up in the interests of the children of the city, as, generally speaking, mothers have no time to organise protest meetings, &c. If those who can afford to pay the price would generously abstain from using high-priced commodities they would be doing their less fortunate brethren a good turn. Harassed Mother.
"INCREASE JUSTIFIED."
The proposed increase in the price of milk is quite justified. I personally find it much better to make cheese and butter and feed the whey to the pigs than hawk milk from door to door, even though the price is 6d per quart. Three months after war broke out the Cowkeepers' Association decided that to be "patriotic"—mark the word —they would keep milk down to 4d per quart, result —many of the small dairymen went bankrupt. The cowkeepers themselves, being hard hit, called another meeting. This time, to be patriotic to themselves and their creditors, they decided to increase the price of milk by 1d per quart. Even at that figure the business could not be made to pay. The question confronting the cowkeepers and dairymen to-day is not how profit can be got out of the public, but, at the enhanced figure, can they save themselves, their wives, and families from ruin? Rex.
Liverpool Daily Post - Wednesday 28th November 1917
SHILLING MILK. COWKEEPERS ANTICIPATE FAMINE IN MARCH.
A meeting of persons interested in the milk trade in Liverpool, met in the Central Hall, Renshaw-street, last evening, under joint auspices of the Cowkeepers and Dairymen’s Associations to discuss the retail price of milk. Resolution was unanimously passed protesting against the price of milk fixed by the Liverpool Food Control Committee, requesting the committee receive deputation on the cost of milk production in Liverpool; and requesting the committee to put up the price of milk to the maximum 8d a quart allowed by Food Controller.
Mr. John Foster, who presided, said that if the present conditions were allowed to grow the available supply of milk would steadily decrease, and the shortage of today would be the famine of to-morrow. Milk would not be 8d, but 1s a quart in March, and few would be able to get it even at that price. Since the beginning of the war the cost of cows had more than doubled, labour, foodstuffs, hay, and horse keep had all increased proportionately but not the price milk. The town cowkeeper could not now produce milk at less than half crown a gallon. Several speakers suggested that the objection to the maximum price for milk did not come from the public, but from the Food Control Committees.
Mr. George Batty said the cowkeepers should agree to close their premises and not go out on their rounds, and churn their milk. Others present deprecated the uttering of threats, while one who said he was one of the largest cowkeepers in Liverpool, owning thirty-four cows, stated that although he did not pay any rent he was unable to make a farthing profit on a week’s trading with milk at 7d a quart.
Liverpool Echo - Friday 28th December 1917
THE CITY OF LIVERPOOL AND DISTRICT COWKEEPERS' ASSOCIATION. NOTICE.
The Food Control Committee of Liverpool have notified they have fixed the price of milk for January as follows —8d per Quart, 4d per Pint, 2d. Half-Pint and 1d per Gill. The difficulties in having a price for delivery and a price from dairy will thus be removed. It is now requested that where the quantity delivered can be reduced, that this be done, in order that there may be more milk obtainable in the dairies for families resident in populous districts.
Liverpool Daily Post - Friday 10th May 1918
SEVENPENNY MILK? LIVERPOOL COWKEEPERS’ REQUEST.
The Liverpool Food Committee have given a favourable hearing to Liverpool cowkeepers’ contention that they cannot sell milk produced in the city for sixpence per quart without losing money. Their request to be allowed to sell their milk at seven pence, at any rate for the month May, has been referred to London, and a decision may be expected early next week. Liverpool is almost alone in the great cities of the country in having a large number of stall-kept cows within its borders. The number kept in Leeds, Sheffield, and Edinburgh falls very short of those in Liverpool. In normal times a very substantial proportion of the entire milk supply of the city comes from the city shippons, and owing to the stringent inspection both of the cowhouses and the system of handling the milk, the produce, as general rule, is fresher, cleaner and of better quality than that brought in by rail from the farm, and is preferred accordingly.
In August 1914, there were 6,400 cows in the city. The milk produced in the city was 123,000 gallons per week, and the amount brought in was 127,000 gallons per week. Today there are 4,200 cows, producing 75,000 gallons per week, and the amount of railway milk imported is 85,500 gallons per week.
At the present price of milk, 6d per quart, it is admitted that the business of the cowkeepers is threatened with closure on economic grounds, and the authorities who are anxious about the maintenance of the milk supply, as well as preservation of an important city industry, have gone into the circumstances thoroughly.
The case against an increase in the price of milk is that Liverpool adjoins Cheshire towns and areas where milk is being sold at 5d per quart, and that by dependence entirely upon imported milk, that price could be enforced in Liverpool by the expedience of diverting milk from cheese making and by requiring Cheshire farmers, who now send their dairies London, to send them to Liverpool.
The civic authorities have always encouraged city milk production on hygienic grounds, and possibly because of this encouragement Liverpool has always had the best milk supply. Because of the artificial conditions now obtaining in the forage markets, exceptional treatment must be accorded to the cowkeeper, and the question for the city is whether his industry is one worth preserving. The authorities evidently think it is, but the Food Ministry, with whom the final decision lies, and with whom the view of the farmer — always an opponent of the city cowkeeper from purely selfish reasons — may have great weight. Apparently it is not proposed that all milk be sold at 7d per quart, but only that produced in Liverpool shippons.
Liverpool Food Controller is now holding inquiries as to the necessity for increased prices to be paid to producers of milk in certain areas. Any applications that groups of farmers wish to make for such inquiries must be in the hands the Divisional Food Commissioner for their area before such date as may have been specified by him; or, in the absence of such notification, by May 20th.
Liverpool Echo - Saturday 8th June 1918
COWKEEPERS' ASSOCIATION OF LIVERPOOL AND DISTRICT.
Please Note - PRICE OF MILK from Sunday MORNING, the 9th instant, will be 7d per quart until further notice. T. BACKHOUSE
Liverpool Evening Express - Friday 10th March 1939
LIVERPOOL DAIRYMEN OPPOSE BOARD
The Liverpool and District Dairy Farmers’ Association, at a meeting in Liverpool, last night, passed a resolution supporting the National Federation of Milk Producer-Retailers in the dispute with the Milk Marketing Board over the payment to the Board of levies and the filling in of record and return sheets. The chairman of the association, Mr John Foster, denied reports that the Federation was going to call for a strike of milk producers, and to reduce the price of milk.
Liverpool Daily Post - Monday 22 May 1939
MAY PARADE OF HORSES
[Extract from Prize List]
Two-wheeled Turnouts (confined to members of Liverpool Dairy Farmers’ Association): 1. C. F. Swinbank; 2. J. H. Moor and Sons: 3. J. Winn.
Liverpool Daily Post - Thursday 5th December 1940
THE MILK PROBLEM - HOW LIVERPOOL MAY TACKLE IT
Liverpool and District Dairymen are considering how best they can give effect to the 10 per cent cut in milk supplies, especially since they claim that Liverpool’s milk quota is already considerably less than it should be. It is unlikely that the suggestion of missing one day in ten for milk delivery will be generally adopted in Liverpool. Many dairymen consider such scheme impracticable, chiefly because they will be left with milk supplies on their hands for the odd day and also because of the public’s difficulty of conserving milk to tide over the milkless day. Accordingly, there will be no hard and fast rule, and inquiries by the Daily Post yesterday indicated a tendency to leave the rationing of customers in the hands of individual dairymen. The rationing will not apply to necessitous cases—expectant mothers, invalids. &c.—but dairymen will enforce the cut probably by leaving one bottle instead of two or two instead of three, on certain days. Mr Eric S. Browne, secretary of the Liverpool and District Dairymen’s Association, told the Daily Post that in previous shortages dairymen had had to ration their customers, and though there was no definite rule to how this reduction was to be applied, dairymen would probably cut down supplies on certain days. He added that Liverpool’s quota was already below 90 per cent., and representations were being made to the Milk Board. Councillor Stanley Foster, of the Liverpool and District Cowkeepers’ Association, said there were about 200 cowkeepers with their own shippons in an area stretching from Crosby to Prescot, and though some had ample milk supplies, they were keeping smaller dairymen stocked. Farmers could not supply their customers with the quota allowed, and Liverpool had already suffered a reduction in supply.
Liverpool Echo - Friday 21st February 1941
LIVERPOOL MILK - RATIONED FOODSTUFFS PROTEST
Liverpool's unique company of cowkeepers—the city dairymen whose cows are permanently indoors and who yet supply 60,000 gallons of high quality milk each week —are alarmed over the rationing of feeding stuffs and are to-day sending a deputation to the Food Ministry Office at Hutton, near Preston.
The cowkeepers, who number about 300, are combined in the City of Liverpool and District Dairy Farmers’ Association, and they keep about 3,000 cows. Although their cows are always indoors, and have to be fed mainly with manufactured feeding stuffs, they have to maintain a 3½ per cent butter fat content in their milk, and regular inspections ensure that the standard is maintained. Their cows keep up a high rate of supply, and each cow produces an average of about three gallons per day.
Their grievance was expressed to the Echo today by Mr J. L. Hogg, of 48 Willowdale Road, Walton, a member of the deputation of seven which went to Preston to-day. “We cowkeepers have now come under the Government rationing scheme for milk as from the first of this month," said Mr Hogg. Our allocation is roughly a quarter of the amount, which we normally use. My allocation for the month is 8 cwts., whereas I normally use 35 cwts. We are supplied with coupons for meal like a motorist has coupons for his petrol. I had a letter from my suppliers this morning saying that they cannot send any more feeding stuff unless I provide more coupons, and that means there is going to be no food for the cows. We cannot possibly keep the cows on the rations which the Government is allowing, and if this goes on, within two months we shall be out of business. You can’t keep cows and starve them to death. We supply about a third of Liverpool’s milk—a supply which is invaluable in case of a blitz or disorganisation of transport because the cows are already in the city. They are treating us on the same basis as farmers, but our conditions are entirely different. We cannot grow anything to provide feeding stuffs, and we have no grazing land to fall back on. Lord Woolton has told us he wants to keep up the nation’s milk supply, but we cannot possibly do our bit towards this if the present rationing scheme continues."
Liverpool Daily Post - Tuesday 4th November 1941
CUT IN MILK SUPPLIES - SERIOUS SHORTAGE IN NORTH-WEST
A serious shortage of milk supplies in Liverpool and many of the large industrial towns in the North-West Region was discussed in Manchester yesterday by Mr G. J. Parr, Regional Milk Supply Officer to the Ministry of Food, who had a private conference with milk distributors from various parts of the region. Mr Parr afterwards told a Daily Post reporter: ‘‘Reports that I have received reveal that there is a substantial shortage and steps are to be taken to see that this is remedied as soon as possible. The operation of the 5 per cent cut in supplies ordered by the Ministry will, of course, prove helpful to a certain extent, but we shall also have to review the flow of milk throughout the region to bring about adjustments and make supplies more equitable.”
Position in Liverpool
So serious is the shortage of milk in Liverpool, and so heavy are the cuts imposed on supplies, that the Food Executive Officer for the city (Mr P. S. Harvey) has written to the Ministry on behalf of the Food Control Committee, asking for a clarification of the position. The position, which is described as “sudden and mysterious,” as it is only a week since Lord Woolton declared that the milk production of the country was so good that all demands could be met, was disclosed to a Daily Post representative in the course of inquiries in connection with the 5 per cent cut in supplies to healthy adults which came into force yesterday. It was revealed that in many cases the so called 5 per cent cut has become a 10, 20, 30 or even 50 per cent, cut, and that, in fact, before the new regulation came into operation, supplies to certain Liverpool dairymen were already reduced by almost half.
Supplies Diverted
Apparently supplies of milk, which normally come to Liverpool by road and rail from outside the city, have been diverted, but no one seems to know why and whither they have been diverted. Mr Harvey does not know. He confessed that he could not understand the position and produced a copy of a letter, which he sent to the Ministry yesterday. It runs as follows:
"Dear Sir—l have been Instructed by the Food Control Committee to call your attention to the serious cuts which have been made in the supplies of liquid milk to Liverpool dairymen during the past week. I am obtaining precise details of the cuts suffered by each of the main dairymen, but in the case of Harpers’ Dairies. Ltd., who take about 5,000 gallons day, the cut was nearly 50 per cent. I have been in communication with Mr Parr, the Regional Milk Officer, on the matter, but he informs me that he is unable to take any step until the milk supplies fall below the minimum entitlement fixed by the Milk Scheme (i.e. two pints per week for adults who are not regarded as priority cases). Mr Parr also informs me that he cannot get a clear picture of the position in the North West Region until all M.K. 2 and M.K. 2a forms have been received. So far as this office is concerned, however, all necessary forms have been despatched and the work is up to date. It was understood that the minimum entitlement fixed by the Milk Scheme would be approached gradually, and the recent announcement of the Minister of Food that a cut of 5 per cent would take place on Monday November 3, was regarded as a first step in the process of gradual reduction. I feel sure that the people of Liverpool will not complain if they are told that the available supplies of liquid milk necessitate the immediate curtailment throughout the country to the quantites fixed by the Milk Scheme, and that supplies have had to be suddenly dropped to the low figure which it was expected would not be reached until the end of the year. If this is the position, however, it should be made clear by public announcement as It cannot be reconciled with the statement so recently made by the Minister that the cut would not be made until November 3, and then only of 5 per cent. The plain fact is that the cut was made in Liverpool many days before November 3, and was considerably in excess 5 per cent. I am instructed by the Food Control Committee to ask you to give this matter your immediate attention.”
May Become More Acute
Those connected with the trade in Liverpool—and, indeed, all healthy adults who need their milk—are in a state of suspense. One big retailer suggested that supplies may have been diverted from Liverpool to Government factories: another authority—Mr J. L. Hogg, who is on the committee of the Liverpool Cowkeepers’ Association—said that the whole thing was a “mystery” and expressed the opinion that the position would become more acute before it improved. Healthy adults, he said, might soon be getting tinned milk instead of liquid milk. But, here also there was difficulty, he added, for many dealers had not even got their allocation of tinned milk. Some 50 per cent had not even got their licences. “Why this terrific decline in supplies I don’t know,” said Mr J. W. Foster, chairman of the National Federation Milk Producer Retailers. “I cannot understand why the cut in Liverpool supplies has been so severe, and why it is so sudden. Apparently until last Tuesday we were all right, and so were the dairymen.”
Liverpool Daily Post - Tuesday 4th November 1941
LIVERPOOL'S MILK SUPPLY
The cut of 5 per cent in milk supplies, which was to come into force yesterday, has produced strange and irritating muddle. It seems, indeed, as if the cut had actually been made before yesterday, and it was not confined to 5 per cent. Apparently it falls unevenly, and was as much as 50 per cent in some cases. Where the other 50 per cent has gone is obscure, but it would seem as if some places must be receiving more than their supply while Liverpool has to do with less. Such inequality of distribution must, of course, be put right, and with little delay as possible. No doubt it must have been difficult to arrange for a cut of 5 per cent to be evenly applied, but the difficulties might have been foreseen and provided for. It is most important that such a scheme as this should work out equitably. With other foods it is possible to use rationing, and that renders distribution comparatively easy. But milk can hardly be rationed. It is the most perishable of foods and must therefore be passed on to the consumer as quickly as possible. It cannot be kept back even for a day. In these circumstances only a communal method like the 5 per cent cut seems practicable. But this ought to be fair, and in Liverpool so far fairness has not been achieved. That obviously must be put right.
Liverpool Echo - Thursday 4th February 1943
MILK DELIVERIES - DAIRY FARMERS APPROVE LIVERPOOL PLAN
The Liverpool Dairy Farmers’ Association, which has about 180 members who produce and sell something like 8,000 gallons of milk per day within the city boundaries, has agreed to approve the new rationalisation scheme for milk deliveries, providing that the trading interests of producer-retailer are safeguarded now and after the war. Mr. S. Thwaite, of Aigburth, secretary of the association, told the Echo that members had agreed to co-operate in the scheme purely as a war-time measure. "We approve it on the understanding that our gallonage remains the same; that is, that we shall continue to supply the same amount of milk as before. We also wish it to be understood that customers whom we lose through the regrouping scheme shall be ‘held in trust' for us by the new supplier, so that the question of trade organisation may remain open for discussion after the war without prejudice."
Liverpool Echo - Friday 12 February 1943
NEW MILK SCHEME “OPERATING NORMALLY AND WELL”
The new milk rationalisation scheme evolved by the Liverpool Milk Retailers’ Association and required by the Ministry of Food, has now been in operation nearly a fortnight. Mr P. S. Harvey, Liverpool’s Deputy Food Executive Officer, thinks the scheme is now operating normally and well. “As could be expected, the transfer of hundreds of thousands of customers from one retailer to another necessitated the straightening-out of many difficulties,” he told the Echo today. “Consumers in some areas were unfortunately without milk for a day or two, until the retailers and their ‘rounds’ men, women, and boys had become acquainted with their new rounds, their customers and requirements. But, on the whole, the public were very helpful and restrained, and at the end of the first week complaints and inquiries had practically disappeared at the Food Office. “The milk retailers have entered into the new scheme with a helpful spirit, and they have done their utmost to meet the requirements of the public."
The distributing scheme has brought its problems, but in view of the vast ramifications of it on Merseyside, it is considered to have worked fairly satisfactorily. General opinion of those officially concerned with the new operations is that time will bring its lessons and the eradications of faults. Notice has been taken of the circumstances of specific cases in which people were without deliveries of milk during the first day or two, but events have shown that the majority of “break-downs” have been the result of inefficient filling-in of official forms by the trade” itself. Given another week or two I think the scheme will be beneficial to both customer and distributor,”
Mr S. Thwaite, secretary of the Liverpool Dairy Farmers’ Association, told the Echo. “I know there are some things to be ironed out yet and I do ask the public to show a little forbearance. A host of official forms have had to be filled in, and mistakes, faults in detail, easily arise. I think there is nothing against the main conception.” Mr P. S. Harvey, the Deputy Food Controller for Liverpool, said: “It would appear that some people have experienced difficulty on these first few days in obtaining their deliveries, but this is one of the natural problems of a vast reorganisation. Most retailers have had to reorganise their rounds system, and it has entailed a deal of work. I think the problems will gradually solve themselves. Already a number of cases have been cleared up satisfactorily.”
Liverpool Echo – Wednesday 12th December 1945
LIKE OLD TIMES, SAID FARMERS – FAT CATTLE DISPLAY AGAIN
It is nearly seven years since the Liverpool and District Livestock Society held a show, and it is evidence of the Society’s vitality that it is able to organise such a creditable display as that opened at Stanley Cattle Market this morning, only four months after the end of hostilities. “Just like old times," was the remark heard among the breeders, dairymen, and general public, as they moved from pen to pen admiring, as well they might, the 280 entries of fat and dairy cattle, calves and pigs. Another comment, coming from visitors not in the business, related to the prime condition of the fatted beasts, and more than one was overheard to inquire how such feeding-up had been managed, and why beef of this quality was not seen in the shops.
The stock, non-pedigree, is scheduled in 32 classes, and in addition to 18 championship cups and trophies, prize money totalling £5OO is offered. Dairy cattle were of special interest, as showing the endeavours of local dairy farmers to rear high-class stock by which to provide the public with wholesome supplies of fresh milk. In this section, a milking trials competition is being closely followed, the quality and quantity of the yield being the test. The City Analyst (Professor W. H. Roberts) is the adjudicator. Prizes in all classes will be presented late this afternoon by Councillor Mrs J Waterworth.
In the dairy cattle there are 159 entries – 50 per cent, above pre-war figures. There is also an interesting section for implements. The Ministries of Agriculture and Food have attractive stalls, and advice on problems affecting farming and milk production is offered freely. Girls from the Ministry of Agriculture demonstrated practical milk testing as carried out in the Government’s laboratories under the Milk Advisory Scheme. Mr Jefferies, war agricultural feeding stuffs and milk production officer, attended to give advice in feeding for milk production. From, the Ministry of Food’s advice centre in School Lane, Liverpool, two young women experts are giving demonstrations in the preparation of Christmas sweets, as well as advice on cookery questions generally.
The opening ceremony was performed by the Lord Mayor (Alderman Luke Hogan), who was accompanied by the Lady Mayoress (Mrs. Hogan), Major Bennett (chairman of the Markets Committee), and others. The Lord Mayor commented that it said a great deal for the courage and initiative of the committee, that they had decided to resuscitate this show and all that it meant, not merely to those who took part in it, but to the city as a whole, which relied considerably upon its markets, abattoir, and kindred societies represented there. “I read to-day that farmers are expressing apprehension regarding the Government’s policy and are afraid of the dread word, nationalisation, fearing that it may be applied to their industry. I know some of the members of the Government, and I have never been able to accuse them of lack of courage, but any Government which would have the pluck to try to nationalise the farming industry would, I think, require a certificate from the nearest mental home.” The Government realised that great individual initiative was required in getting the best out of the land. Although it was a good thing that the wages of those engaged in this industry had risen to a fairly decent level, they could not be maintained unless the product of the soil enabled the industry to be run in an efficient manner and allowed reasonable profit from the work put into it.
Speaking at a luncheon afterwards. Major Bennett, who is chairman of the society’s executive committee, said that this was the first time in their existence that they had started with balance on the right side.
Liverpool Echo – Thursday 11 December 1947
TOOK THE LOT – A LIVERPOOL DAIRY FARMER’S REMARKABLE SUCCESS
Cows from the herd of a Liverpool city dairy farmer had remarkable successes at the Liverpool and District Livestock Society's Christmas show, reported to have been the first occasion in the history of this show when one exhibitor has taken all the championship prizes. The proud owner is Mr Simon Thwaite of 85 Aigburth Road. His cows won:
- The Richard Batty Memorial Cup for the best pair of dairy cows.
- The Robert Raw Cup for the champion dairy cow.
- The Metcalfe Challenge Cup for the best pair of cows (one dairy cow and one fat cow belonging to the same exhibitor).
- The Batty Silver Cup for the best lightweight cow.
- The Metcalfe Challenge Shield for the best heavyweight cow.
Liverpool Echo – Wednesday 22 October 1952
SAFER MILK – NEW CITY ORDER NEXT MONTH
The Echo understands that on and from November 1st next, all milk distributed in Liverpool and its environs, will be required to conform to the safe milk standards imposed by the Ministry of Food and be designated either sterilised, pasteurised, tuberculin-tested, or accredited milk.
The order is expected to apply to the city of Liverpool, Bootle, Crosby and the urban areas of Litherland, Huyton-with-Roby and Prescot.
Under the rule, the only “raw milk” to be allowed for distribution will be that from tuberculin-tested or accredited herds. All other milk will be heat-treated before distribution.
“The new ruling,” said Dr A. B. Semple (Liverpool Deputy Medical Officer of Health), “will make no difference to the daily supplies because 98 per cent of the milk now being sold is in the category to be prescribed. The changeover will be smooth and quiet. There have been no difficulties and local dairy farmers are most co-operative.”
He described Liverpool as a pioneer city in the production of clean milk. Although 82,450 gallons are distributed each day in the city, with quantities arriving from as far as the Lake District, no milk-borne outbreaks have taken place in the past year. Disease in the city arising from milk is comparatively rare nowadays.
Kirkby Creamery
To streamline the move towards safe milk, the city’s cowkeepers have opened their own creamery at Kirkby. Ten thousand gallons of milk can be treated daily by the equipment. Dairy farmers, who have formed a limited company, aim to double the output, if necessary, by 1954.
Mr Simon Thwaite (secretary of the Liverpool Dairy Farmers and managing director of the Creamery) commented: “There will be no hardship incurred by any cow-keepers as a result of the changeover. But, we had hoped that more of the dairy farmers in Liverpool would have joined our Kirkby scheme during the year. About half the cow-keepers are members.”
In Liverpool there are 87 licensed cow sheds, but Mr Thwaite estimates no more than 20 sheds contain cattle, through the decline in one-man businesses. There are 1,340 cattle.
SAFER MILK – NEW CITY ORDER NEXT MONTH
The Echo understands that on and from November 1st next, all milk distributed in Liverpool and its environs, will be required to conform to the safe milk standards imposed by the Ministry of Food and be designated either sterilised, pasteurised, tuberculin-tested, or accredited milk.
The order is expected to apply to the city of Liverpool, Bootle, Crosby and the urban areas of Litherland, Huyton-with-Roby and Prescot.
Under the rule, the only “raw milk” to be allowed for distribution will be that from tuberculin-tested or accredited herds. All other milk will be heat-treated before distribution.
“The new ruling,” said Dr A. B. Semple (Liverpool Deputy Medical Officer of Health), “will make no difference to the daily supplies because 98 per cent of the milk now being sold is in the category to be prescribed. The changeover will be smooth and quiet. There have been no difficulties and local dairy farmers are most co-operative.”
He described Liverpool as a pioneer city in the production of clean milk. Although 82,450 gallons are distributed each day in the city, with quantities arriving from as far as the Lake District, no milk-borne outbreaks have taken place in the past year. Disease in the city arising from milk is comparatively rare nowadays.
Kirkby Creamery
To streamline the move towards safe milk, the city’s cowkeepers have opened their own creamery at Kirkby. Ten thousand gallons of milk can be treated daily by the equipment. Dairy farmers, who have formed a limited company, aim to double the output, if necessary, by 1954.
Mr Simon Thwaite (secretary of the Liverpool Dairy Farmers and managing director of the Creamery) commented: “There will be no hardship incurred by any cow-keepers as a result of the changeover. But, we had hoped that more of the dairy farmers in Liverpool would have joined our Kirkby scheme during the year. About half the cow-keepers are members.”
In Liverpool there are 87 licensed cow sheds, but Mr Thwaite estimates no more than 20 sheds contain cattle, through the decline in one-man businesses. There are 1,340 cattle.
Liverpool Echo – Tuesday May 10th 1955
CARS MORE ACCEPTABLE THAN COWS (Excerpt)
A garage was more acceptable than a cowkeeping business, a woman resident said at an inquiry at the Municipal Annexes, Liverpool, today.
The inquiry, held by Mr H. A. Campbell, an inspector of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, was into the refusal of Liverpool City Council to grant permission for a garage at 8 Tawd Street...
Opening the case for the appellants, Mr Steel said the premises were 80 to 100 years old and had been occupied by Mr Thomas Illingworth, father of the appellants, since 1940 in his business as cowkeeper. In June 1954, the Corporation served a dangerous structure notice on him and he decided that it was not an economic proposition to carry out the repairs. He gave up the business of cowkeeping...
Mr Campbell announced that he would inspect the property and closed the inquiry.
Liverpool Echo Tuesday 24th October 1961
THE MILKMAN CALLS – IT’S A SERVICE WE TAKE FOR GRANTED
In an age when more emphasis is being placed on impersonal sales, the daily visit of the milk roundsman, which occurs with unfailing regularity, is taken for granted. Yet this is the only country in the world where a daily delivery service is available to every household.
In America, for instance, the usual way to stock up with milk is to pay a call at the local stores once or twice a week and put the milk in the refrigerator. In France the same thing happens that there are not so many fridges and so milk has to be bought, like bread, every day.
The daily supply of the ‘pinta’ in England and Wales comes to the housewife through a most complex organisation of production and distribution.
When the milk is collected from the farms it is quickly transported to town dairies where it is hygienically processed and bottled. Then, about 4:30 a.m. every morning, some 45,000 roundsmen up and down the country begin to stir and they personally deliver milk to every household. The whole milk delivery operation is conducted with speed and efficiency – speed because milk is perishable and efficiency because it is a bulky product and difficult to handle.
And so when the housewife pays her eightpence for a pint of milk it is not just the milk she’s paying for. There’s the transport because milk often travels some hundreds of miles before reaching its destination. Then it is pasteurised, put into a sterile bottle, delivered to the doorstep and later the milkman collects the bottle, books the charge and maybe has to wait for the money. Not bad for eightpence.
The business of milk delivery doesn’t, of course, stop with the bottles being put on the doorstep. Industry has to be supplied and schools have a continuous thirst with each pupil receiving a free third of a pint each day. In Liverpool on an average day 118,685 third of a pint bottles are consumed in schools. This is just over 4,495 gallons.
There are still among us those die-hards who insist that a pint of milk which has been ‘mucked about with’ (in other words, pasteurised) cannot be as good for us as a pint straight from the cow. Perhaps this is a question of taste. In any case milk has never been safer than it is today when it arrives in a glass bottle.
Tests and crosschecks by doctors prove this. Cowsheds, milking methods and animals are all governed by strict hygiene laws, and Ministry of Agriculture regulations make certain that all milk comes from attested herds. Pasteurisation, recognised by law in 1923, led to an immediate drop in tuberculosis and diarrhoea among children. These diseases now stand at an all time low and milk has undoubtedly played an important part and is continuing to do so by helping to maintain the health of the nation.
OH! THOSE LOST BOTTLES
At least 300,000,000 milk bottles are lost or broken in England and Wales every year and the figure is rising annually. The annual cost of replacing them is almost £6,000,000. Yet milk producers and distributors are reluctant to change to greaseproof cartons, which can be thrown away after use. For one thing, milk distributors have invested considerable sums in the complex bottling processes and to change over at this stage would involve considerable sums. Another economic factor is that a bottle, while costing 5d, can (in most cases) be used several times. A carton, which costs almost 2d, can only be used once.
The advantages of the two types of container have been weighed up by the housewife, but it is not possible to tip the scales of opinion either way. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. Obviously, bottles will get broken and cracked. They also get commandeered for other purposes, such as flower vases and paint containers. People forget about them and then suddenly cover the front doorstep with a dozen or so, presenting the milkman with something of a problem.
The heart-cry of the milk distributors is “Please rinse your bottles and leave them out for us to collect every day.”
Liverpool Echo and Evening Express – Thursday 3rd June 1965
FAMILY WHO SOLD MILK FROM THEIR OWN COWS (Excerpt)
It’s a long time since I heard the term ‘cowkeeper’ used to describe a milk retailer’s business. But, when Mrs E. R. Lambert, an Echo reader for more than 50 years, was telling me about the career of her eldest daughter, Margaret, in Canada, she commented “Margaret was born at 33 Holt Road, Kensington, where we carried on business as cowkeepers.”
I vaguely remember the word, but I couldn’t place exactly what business it entailed. So Mrs Lambert explained: “We used to keep and milk 18 cows tied up in shippons at the rear of the shop. We weren’t just a dairy, you see, but cowkeepers, producing on the premises, so to speak, the milk we sold.”
Half a century and more ago, cowkeepers by the hundred operated in Liverpool, but nowadays there cannot be more than one or two at the most. The Lambert family still have a dairy and shop, but they are no longer keeping their own cows to supply the milk.
Liverpool Echo - Friday 15 November 1968
AND THE CUSTOMERS CRY AS THE MILKMAN SAYS GOODBYE
A remarkable record of service came to an end in Fazakerley a few days ago. Mr Miles Capstick, the dairyman, who has delivered milk there for the past 47 years, made his last round and for many of his customers it was a time for tears.
"I cried myself,” said Mr Capstick, whose father Mr John Capstick, started the dairy in 1921. “I decided to give it up because of my health. I'm 64 and the doctors have been telling me to do so for some time."
With his sister, Miss Jane Capstick, he has run the dairy at Sandy Lane Farm, Rhodesia Road, since his father died in 1949. All his life he has been delivering milk. At the age of nine he used to make the rounds in Clubmoor when it was 2d pint. Every day he has got up at 3.30 a.m., without an alarm clock, and only three times has he gone sick or been away on holiday. He was a great favourite his 500 customers. The children used to call him Miley and he was often seen holding their hands and making them smile.
“I’ll miss the children," he told me. "I just love them." There have been great changes. Up until 1957 he used to keep a small herd of cows and when they first started, Sandy Lane Farm was in the country. “We had a horse float with milk cans and a gill measure up until 1940, then we bought a van."
His sister Jane, who is 61, has also decided to retire and so J. B. Capstick & Son will soon cease to exist. His last words to me were typical of this generous man: “Please thank all my customers – they’ve been so good to me.”
Liverpool Echo - Friday 22 November 1968
FIRST BREAK WAS IN 1939
A man who hasn't had a holiday since 1939 wrote to me about the piece I wrote last week about Mr Miles Capstick, the dairyman who recently retired after delivering milk In Fazakerley for 47 years.
“I can claim to beat that record, having done 54 years without a break " says Mr John Davies, of 19 Sinclair Drive, Liverpool 18. He ran a dairy at 88 Ash Grove, Wavertree, which was called 'Dairy Farm,' until July this year. And he still has the receipt of sale given to his father when the dairy was bought in 1885.
"The people in Wavertree have known me for a lifetime," says Mr Davies. "I was known in the district as Old Landmark." He took over the dairy after his father, Mr Daniel Davies, died in 1926.
Margaret, his wife, who is 56, delivered milk for 30 years and they had about 500 customers. As for holidays he says that he got out of the habit and he didn't even go away this summer. " I don't know how I got out of it—l kept putting it off. But I'd like to go to Wales next year." Like Mr Capstick, he would like to thank his customers for what he regards now as happy times.
© Ian Thwaite 2018
Liverpool Daily Post Friday 22 January 1971
ANOTHER OLD CITY SCENE DISAPPEARS AS BILLY AND RAGS RETIRE
Billy and Rags, two horses daily seen among the narrow streets of Edge Hill and Wavertree, are retiring and with their going will disappear yet another part of Liverpool’s colourful past.
Billy and Rags will deliver milk for the last time tomorrow, giving way to an electric milk float.
Thwaites, of Annerley Street, Edge Hill, one of the city’s oldest dairy firms, is closing after almost eighty years in the business.
The large company which is buying out the business – at present in the hands of fifty-three-year-old Mr Thomas Thwaite – will be delivering the milk the mechanised way and will not require the help of the two sixteen-year-old horses. They are to be sold.
The Thwaite family have been using horses to deliver since the business was established by Mr Thwaite’s father towards the end of the last century. At one stage a herd of forty cows was kept in a field near the dairy, but building in the area eventually made the keeping of cows impossible.
Mr Bill Thwaite, brother of the owner of the business, has delivered milk for forty years. He says: “Horses are quicker and cheaper.”
“On a cold morning a van may not start, but a horse will. Then you have to stop a van and walk to the houses and back again. But, with a horse-drawn cart we can be delivering the milk while the horse keeps walking slowly along the street - providing we watch him when he’s passing parked cars.”
The dairy, and the stables behind it, has been placed under a compulsory purchase order and is to be demolished – as will the rest of the buildings in the street.
Many of the houses of Mr Thwaite’s customers are similarly due for demolition, which would mean the disappearance of about half the present milk round, a consideration which led to his decision to give up the business.
He and his wife, Florence, will concentrate on their other interest, cattle dealing, and are moving to their farm in Hale.
ANOTHER OLD CITY SCENE DISAPPEARS AS BILLY AND RAGS RETIRE
Billy and Rags, two horses daily seen among the narrow streets of Edge Hill and Wavertree, are retiring and with their going will disappear yet another part of Liverpool’s colourful past.
Billy and Rags will deliver milk for the last time tomorrow, giving way to an electric milk float.
Thwaites, of Annerley Street, Edge Hill, one of the city’s oldest dairy firms, is closing after almost eighty years in the business.
The large company which is buying out the business – at present in the hands of fifty-three-year-old Mr Thomas Thwaite – will be delivering the milk the mechanised way and will not require the help of the two sixteen-year-old horses. They are to be sold.
The Thwaite family have been using horses to deliver since the business was established by Mr Thwaite’s father towards the end of the last century. At one stage a herd of forty cows was kept in a field near the dairy, but building in the area eventually made the keeping of cows impossible.
Mr Bill Thwaite, brother of the owner of the business, has delivered milk for forty years. He says: “Horses are quicker and cheaper.”
“On a cold morning a van may not start, but a horse will. Then you have to stop a van and walk to the houses and back again. But, with a horse-drawn cart we can be delivering the milk while the horse keeps walking slowly along the street - providing we watch him when he’s passing parked cars.”
The dairy, and the stables behind it, has been placed under a compulsory purchase order and is to be demolished – as will the rest of the buildings in the street.
Many of the houses of Mr Thwaite’s customers are similarly due for demolition, which would mean the disappearance of about half the present milk round, a consideration which led to his decision to give up the business.
He and his wife, Florence, will concentrate on their other interest, cattle dealing, and are moving to their farm in Hale.
Liverpool Echo - Wednesday 1st March 1972
CITY MAY LOSE ANOTHER LINK WITH THE PAST
Another chapter in the history of old Liverpool may close at a lunch in a city hotel to-morrow when after nearly 20 years, members of the Liverpool Dairy Farmers' Association meet to discuss winding-up the organisation. Founded over 120 years ago to pool ideas on feeding and marketing, the association had 500 members at its peak in the first decade of this century. The members then owned 4,500 cows and supplied one-third of the city's milk. But the effects of enemy bombing during the last war and land redevelopment, combined to clear away the farms inside the city. A creamery started by eight members of the association was built in Kirkby in 1954 and ran for 12 years, supplying 11,000 gallons a day, until it was sold to Unigate. Up to eight years ago there were still some farms in Liverpool. Mr William Bateman ran a dairy herd, which at one time numbered 30, at Beechwood Farm, Grassendale. He now keeps poultry. Also, in 1964, Mr Tom Hogg had to close his family farm, Jericho Farm, which had been at Aigburth Vale for over 100 years, to make way for new playing fields. He used to have a herd of 70 Friesians. Now there is only one herd left in Liverpool, belonging to Mr. Henry Winn, of Smithdown Road, Wavertree.
Liverpool Echo - Tuesday 28 January 1975
JOE AND SON ARE THE CREAM OF THE PINTA MEN
At one time in the early part of this century there were no fewer than 900 cowkeepers in Liverpool. All the trappings of rural life were carried on in backyard shippons housing anything between 10 and 30 cows. After the Second World War there were still 200 registered cowkeepers on the city's books. Now there is only one - Joe Capstick, who has his premises in Marlborough Road, Tuebrook, where his shippon accommodates 14 fine-looking Friesians, complacently chewing the cud on their beds of sawdust and providing a sizeable part of the area with its daily milk, delivered by horse-drawn lorry. Except on Sunday mornings when Bonny, the horse, has her weekly lie-in and the milk goes out on floats. What I found fascinating when I looked in on Joe's spick-and-span shippons, which have won him praise from the Milk Marketing Board, is that he won't be the last of the line.
In an age when no job is too sophisticated but many are too humdrum for the rising generation, Joe is fortunate in having a son, Maurice, who wants nothing more than to carry on a business that was set up in Marlborough Road by his grandfather. His forebears had farmed in Sandy Lane. Maurice, who told me he is sixteen going on seventeen, can do every job there is around the dairy and the shippons, but his greatest joy is delivering the milk with the aid of Bonny. "She knows every customer," he told me. "The moment she leaves the yard she goes tearing off to Lisburn Lane, where she gets her first tit-bit from a customer. Then it's a gentle plod, stopping at every customer's door until it's time to speed up to the next for bit of sugar or biscuit." And that seemed to be the tempo of life in that Marlborough Road yard, although just around the corner in West Derby Road, city life went racing on.
CITY MAY LOSE ANOTHER LINK WITH THE PAST
Another chapter in the history of old Liverpool may close at a lunch in a city hotel to-morrow when after nearly 20 years, members of the Liverpool Dairy Farmers' Association meet to discuss winding-up the organisation. Founded over 120 years ago to pool ideas on feeding and marketing, the association had 500 members at its peak in the first decade of this century. The members then owned 4,500 cows and supplied one-third of the city's milk. But the effects of enemy bombing during the last war and land redevelopment, combined to clear away the farms inside the city. A creamery started by eight members of the association was built in Kirkby in 1954 and ran for 12 years, supplying 11,000 gallons a day, until it was sold to Unigate. Up to eight years ago there were still some farms in Liverpool. Mr William Bateman ran a dairy herd, which at one time numbered 30, at Beechwood Farm, Grassendale. He now keeps poultry. Also, in 1964, Mr Tom Hogg had to close his family farm, Jericho Farm, which had been at Aigburth Vale for over 100 years, to make way for new playing fields. He used to have a herd of 70 Friesians. Now there is only one herd left in Liverpool, belonging to Mr. Henry Winn, of Smithdown Road, Wavertree.
Liverpool Echo - Tuesday 28 January 1975
JOE AND SON ARE THE CREAM OF THE PINTA MEN
At one time in the early part of this century there were no fewer than 900 cowkeepers in Liverpool. All the trappings of rural life were carried on in backyard shippons housing anything between 10 and 30 cows. After the Second World War there were still 200 registered cowkeepers on the city's books. Now there is only one - Joe Capstick, who has his premises in Marlborough Road, Tuebrook, where his shippon accommodates 14 fine-looking Friesians, complacently chewing the cud on their beds of sawdust and providing a sizeable part of the area with its daily milk, delivered by horse-drawn lorry. Except on Sunday mornings when Bonny, the horse, has her weekly lie-in and the milk goes out on floats. What I found fascinating when I looked in on Joe's spick-and-span shippons, which have won him praise from the Milk Marketing Board, is that he won't be the last of the line.
In an age when no job is too sophisticated but many are too humdrum for the rising generation, Joe is fortunate in having a son, Maurice, who wants nothing more than to carry on a business that was set up in Marlborough Road by his grandfather. His forebears had farmed in Sandy Lane. Maurice, who told me he is sixteen going on seventeen, can do every job there is around the dairy and the shippons, but his greatest joy is delivering the milk with the aid of Bonny. "She knows every customer," he told me. "The moment she leaves the yard she goes tearing off to Lisburn Lane, where she gets her first tit-bit from a customer. Then it's a gentle plod, stopping at every customer's door until it's time to speed up to the next for bit of sugar or biscuit." And that seemed to be the tempo of life in that Marlborough Road yard, although just around the corner in West Derby Road, city life went racing on.