Dairy farming in New Zealand began during the early days of colonisation by Europeans. The New Zealand dairy industry is based almost exclusively on cattle, with a population of 4.92 million milking cows in the 2019-20 season. [1] The income from dairy farming is now a major part of the New Zealand economy, becoming an NZ$13.4 billion industry by 2017.
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In 1814 the missionary Samuel Marsden introduced the first Shorthorn dairy cows (then known as Durhams) to mission stations in the Bay of Islands. The cows were gifted by New South Wales Governor Lachlan Macquarie from the New South Wales Crown herd. From the 1840s, most settlements had farms with some Shorthorn dairy cattle and it was common for families to have one or two cows, milked by the women and children. Herds tended to be larger near urban areas, where dairy products—predominantly milk and butter—could be sold or traded. [2]
The first dairy co-operative was established on Otago Peninsula in 1871. In 1881, the newly arrived colonist William Bowron gave a series of lectures propounding the notion that the institution of dairy factories, for the mass production of cheese, would be greatly advantageous to the economy of New Zealand. [3] He was largely instrumental in the establishment of the Ashburton Cheese and Butter Factory at Flemington. The factory was managed by William Harding, the son of the inventor of modern Cheddar cheese, Joseph Harding. [4] The venture was a great success, and consequently Bowron was appointed Government Inspector of Dairy Factories in 1883. [5] In this capacity, he largely facilitated the setting up of factories across the country until his death in 1890. [6] He published three pamphlets on the manufacture of cheese, butter and bacon in New Zealand. [7]
By 1920, there were 600 dairy processing factories of which about 85% were owned by co-operatives. [8] In 1923, the New Zealand Dairy Board (NZDB) was formed as a statutory board with monopoly control of the export of all New Zealand dairy products. [9] In the 1930s there were around 500 co-operatives [10] but after World War II, improved transportation, processing technologies and energy systems led to a trend of consolidation where the co-operatives merged and became larger and fewer in number. [11] By the late 1990s, there were four co-operatives: the Waikato-based New Zealand Dairy Group, the Taranaki-based Kiwi Co-operative Dairies, the Hokitika-based Westland Milk Products and Tatua Co-operative Dairy Company. [8]
In 1988, due to the effects of Cyclone Bola, many farms in Taranaki converted from agriculture to dairy farming. [12]
In 2001, the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act 2001 was passed, allowing the two largest remaining cooperatives, New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company Ltd and Kiwi Co-operative Dairies Ltd, to merge with the New Zealand Dairy Board to produce Fonterra, now New Zealand's largest company.
Dairy farming in New Zealand is primarily pasture-based. Dairy cattle primarily feed on grass, supplemented by silage, hay and other crops during winter and other times of slow pasture growth. [13] Traditional dairy production areas are the wetter areas of the country, including the Waikato, the Bay of Plenty, Taranaki, Manawatū, Nelson, Tasman and the West Coast, but increased irrigation has seen dairy farms established in drier areas such as Canterbury and Otago. [14]
Around 56% of dairy farms in New Zealand are owner-operated as of 2015, while 29% are operated by sharemilkers and 14% are operated by contract milkers. [15] Herd-owning sharemilkers (formerly 50:50 sharemikers) own their own herd, and are responsible for employing workers and the day-to-day operations of the farm, in return for receiving a percentage (typically 50%) of the milk income. Variable order sharemilkers do not own their own herd, and receive a lower percentage (typically 20-30%) of the milk income, while contract milkers are paid a fixed price per unit of milk. [16]
The dairy farming year in New Zealand typically runs from 1 June to 31 May. The first day of the new year, known as "Moving Day" or "Gypsy Day", sees a large-scale migration as sharemilkers and contract milkers take up new contracts and move herds and equipment between farms. [17] [18] Calving typically takes place in late winter/early spring (July to September), and cows are milked for 270-300 days before being dried off in late autumn (April and May). [14] [13] Some farms, either wholly or partly, employ winter milking, with calving in late summer and early autumn (February and March). [13]
| Product | Volume (tonnes) | Value (million NZ$) |
|---|---|---|
| Whole milk powder | 1,319,542 | 5,818 |
| Butter, AMF, and cream | 454,660 | 3,812 |
| Skim milk powder | 431,303 | 1,228 |
| Cheese | 329,854 | 1,905 |
| Casein | 191,407 | 1,601 |
| Infant Formula | 91,914 | 1,240 |
| Other products | 419,381 | 1,050 |
In the 2019-20 season, New Zealand produced 21.1 billion litres (4.6×109 imp gal; 5.6×109 US gal) of raw milk containing 1.9 million tonnes of milk solids (protein and milkfat). This makes the country the world's seventh-largest milk producer, with about 3% of world production in the 2016/17 dairy season. [20] [21] Most of this exported, with Fonterra alone responsible for approximately one third of the world's dairy exports. [22]
Before the advent of refrigerated shipping in the 1880s, dairy production was entirely for local consumption, with butter and cheese usually being produced on the farm, with the surplus being sold to the community via the local store. Small dairy factories began to be established in the 1880s, and soon there was one in almost every village in dairying regions. Production began to be centralised in the second half of the 20th century, with facilities such as the Fonterra plants at Whareroa (near Hāwera), Edendale, Clandeboye (near Timaru), and Te Rapa being the four largest in the Southern Hemisphere. Whareroa is also currently the largest dairy factory in the world by milk intake.
Fonterra is the largest processor of milk in New Zealand, processing 82 percent of all milk solids as of 2018. Other large dairy companies are Open Country Dairy (7.4%), Synlait and Westland Milk Products (3.4% each), Miraka (1.4%), Oceania Dairy (1.1%), and Tatua Co-operative Dairy Company (0.7%). [23]
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Enzootic bovine leucosis is a form of leukaemia caused by the Bovine leukemia virus (BLV). [24] In 1997, a national control scheme was implemented with the goal of eradicating BLV from New Zealand. This was declared successful in 2009 [25] [26]
Bovine tuberculosis is currently (2012) endemic in possums across approximately 38 per cent of New Zealand (known as ‘vector risk areas’). In these areas, nearly 70 per cent of new herd infections can be traced back to possums or ferrets. From 1979–1984, possum control was stopped due to lack of funding. In spite of regular and frequent TB testing of cattle herds, the number of infected herds snowballed and continued to increase until 1994, and the area of New Zealand where there were TB wild animals expanded from about 10 to 40 per cent. [27] The Biosecurity Act 1993, which established a National Pest Management Strategy, is the legislation behind control of the disease in New Zealand. The Animal Health Board (AHB) operates a nationwide programme of cattle testing and possum control with the goal of eradicating the bacterium responsible for bovine tuberculosis (Mycobacterium bovis) from wild vector species across 2.5 million hectares – or one quarter – of New Zealand's at-risk areas by 2026 and, eventually, eradicating the disease entirely. [28] As of the 2017/18 dairy season, only twenty herds in New Zealand remained affected. [29]
Possums are not native to New Zealand, and are considered both an agricultural and a conservation pest. They are controlled through a combination of trapping, ground-baiting and, where other methods are impractical, aerial treatment with 1080 poison. [30] That possums are such effective transmitters of TB appears to be facilitated by their behaviour once they succumb to the disease. Terminally ill TB possums will show increasingly erratic behaviour, such as venturing out during the daytime to get enough food to eat, and seeking out buildings in which to keep warm. As a consequence they may wander onto paddocks, where they naturally attract the attention of inquisitive cattle and deer. This behaviour has been captured on video. [31]
Mycoplasma bovis, a bacterial disease known to cause a range of serious conditions in cattle was detected in New Zealand in July 2017. [32] Known conditions include mastitis, pneumonia, arthritis, and late-term abortions. [33] The disease has been described as the worst disease to land in New Zealand, with an eradication cost estimated at $886 million over 10 years. [34]
Leptospirosis is a disease caused by bacteria known as Leptospira and is one of the most common diseases transmitted from animals to humans in New Zealand. [35] The disease is common amongst dairy farmers and the numbers notified are increasing yearly with 141 cases notified in 2017. [36]
Dairy farming is being increasingly held to account for the environmental impacts of the industry. Fish and Game started the "dirty dairying" campaign in 2002 to highlight the effect of dairying on water quality. As a response to the campaign the Dairying and Clean Streams Accord was established in an attempt to reduce the level of water pollution. Initially the family owned Crafar Farms bore the brunt of the prosecutions and were labelled the "poster boys for dirty dairying" by Environment Waikato's regulatory committee chairman Ian Balme. [37] Dairy NZ in 2014 claimed that as a direct result of the Sustainable Dairying: Water Accord all New Zealand dairy companies now have programmes in place to assess the effluent systems of suppliers on a three-yearly basis, with several assessing every farm every year. [38] Despite this, a 2018 report from Forest and Bird found that regional councils had 425 reported cases of serious non-compliance in 2016–17, and this was likely a significant under-reporting. [39]
Dairy farmers are paid by milk processors based on the amount of milk solids (protein and fat) sold. For the 2019-20 season, Fonterra paid farmers $7.14 per kilogram of milk solids (kgMS) excluding GST, with other processors paying between $6.75 and $9.96 per kgMS. [40] Farmers are penalised if they supply milk that fails to meet quality standards, for example, if there is a high somatic cell count or antibiotics are present. [41]
In 2011 controversy arose over the retail price of milk in New Zealand, leading to an enquiry by a government select committee and a small scale price war. [42]
A dairy is a place where milk is stored and where butter, cheese and other dairy products are made, or a place where those products are sold. It may be a room, a building or a larger establishment. In the United States, the word may also describe a dairy farm or the part of a mixed farm dedicated to milk for human consumption, whether from cows, buffaloes, goats, yaks, sheep, horses or camels.
Dairy farming is a class of agriculture for the long-term production of milk, which is processed for the eventual sale of a dairy product. Dairy farming has a history that goes back to the early Neolithic era, around the seventh millennium BC, in many regions of Europe and Africa. Before the 20th century, milking was done by hand on small farms. Beginning in the early 20th century, milking was done in large scale dairy farms with innovations including rotary parlors, the milking pipeline, and automatic milking systems that were commercially developed in the early 1990s.
Fonterra Co-operative Group Limited is a New Zealand multinational publicly traded dairy co-operative owned by New Zealand farmers. The company is responsible for approximately 30% of the world's dairy exports and with revenue exceeding NZ $22 billion, making it New Zealand's largest company. It is the sixth-largest dairy company in the world as of 2022, as well as the largest in the Southern Hemisphere.
Anchor is a brand of dairy products that was founded in New Zealand in 1886, and is one of the key brands owned by the New Zealand based international exporter Fonterra Co-operative Group. In Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan, Fonterra uses the Fernleaf brand instead of Anchor.
Mycobacterium bovis is a slow-growing aerobic bacterium and the causative agent of tuberculosis in cattle. It is related to Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium which causes tuberculosis in humans. M. bovis can jump the species barrier and cause tuberculosis-like infection in humans and other mammals.
Dairy cattle are cattle bred with the ability to produce large quantities of milk, from which dairy products are made. Dairy cattle generally are of the species Bos taurus.
In New Zealand "dirty dairying" refers to damage to the ecological health of New Zealand's freshwater environment by the intensification of dairy farming, and also to the high profile campaign begun in 2002 by the Fish and Game Council to highlight and combat this.
In New Zealand, agriculture is the largest sector of the tradable economy. The country exported NZ$46.4 billion worth of agricultural products in the 12 months to June 2019, 79.6% of the country's total exported goods. The agriculture, forestry and fisheries sector directly contributed $12.653 billion of the national GDP in the 12 months to September 2020, and employed 143,000 people, 5.9% of New Zealand's workforce, as of the 2018 census.
The common brushtail possum was introduced from Australia to New Zealand, where it has become invasive and a major agricultural and conservation pest.
CraFarms is a group of companies of which Allan, Beth and Frank Crafar were Directors. Crafar Farms was New Zealand's largest family-owned dairy business. The family business owned 22 dry stock and dairy farms with approximately 20,000 cows in various regions of the North Island, and was put into receivership in October 2009. Crafar Farms was involved in multiple prosecutions for pollution offences and incidents of poor animal welfare from 2007 to 2011.
The Tatua Co-operative Dairy Company Ltd, trading as Tatua, is an independent co-operative dairy company in the Matamata-Piako District of the Waikato Region, in the North Island of New Zealand. It is located in the rural locality of Tatuanui, approximately 8 kilometres east of Morrinsville. The co-operative is owned by 106 shareholder farms, all located within a 12 kilometre radius of the processing factory.
The Downs Co-operative Dairy Association Limited Factory is a heritage-listed factory at 57 Brook Street, North Toowoomba, Toowoomba, Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia. It is also known as Dairy Farmers Factory. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 18 April 2008.
Kingaroy Butter Factory is a heritage-listed former butter factory at 67 William Street, Kingaroy, South Burnett Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Waugh and Josephson and built in 1926. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 9 November 2012.
Mycoplasma bovis is one of 126 species of genus Mycoplasma. It is the smallest living cell and anaerobic organism in nature. It does not contain any cell wall and is therefore resistant to penicillin and other beta lactam antibiotics.
South Burnett Co-operative Dairy Association Factory is a heritage-listed former factory at Macalister Street, Murgon, South Burnett Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by George Gerald Hutton and built in 1929 by H Taylor. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 9 November 2012.
Nanango Butter Factory Building is a heritage-listed factory at George Street, Nanango, South Burnett Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built in 1927. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 3 June 2005.
The dairy industry in the United States includes the farms, cooperatives, and companies that produce milk and cheese and related products, such as milking machines, and distribute them to the consumer. By 1925, the United States had 1.5-2 million dairy cows, each producing an average of 4200 lb of milk per year. By 2007, there were 9.1 million dairy cows but their average milk production was over 20,000 pounds per year, with eight pounds per gallon.
Dairy plays a significant part in numerous aspects of Indian society, including cuisine, religion, culture, and the economy.
Dairy is a major industry in the state of Wisconsin. Being known for its dairy production, the state is often called "America's Dairyland." The industry is prominent in official state symbols—being displayed on the state's license plates, state's slogan, and on the state quarter.
Edwin George Hastings was an American professor of agricultural bacteriology, known for his work with Harry Luman Russell on bovine tuberculosis and applications of the tuberculin test to herds of cattle. Hastings was the president in 1923 of the American Society for Microbiology.
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