Dairy farming in New Zealand

Dairy farming in New Zealand began from small beginnings during the early days of colonisation by Europeans. The income from dairy farming is now a major part of the New Zealand economy, becoming an NZ$11 billion industry by 2010.

In 1814 the missionary Samuel Marsden introduced the first Shorthorn dairy cows to the Bay of Islands from New South Wales. From the 1840s, most settlements had farms with some Shorthorn dairy cattle. Herds tended to be larger near urban areas.

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. He was largely instrumental in the establishment of the Ashburton Cheese and Butter Factory at Flemington, managed by William Harding, son of the Cheddar Cheese founder Joseph Harding. The venture was a great success, and consequently Bowron was appointed Government Inspector of Dairy Factories in 1883. In this capacity, he largely facilitated the setting up of factories across the country until his death in 1890. He published three pamphlets on the manufacture of cheese, butter and bacon in New Zealand.

By 1920, there were 600 dairy processing factories of which about 85% were owned by co-operatives. In the 1930s there were around 500 co-operatives 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. 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.

New Zealand is the world's eighth largest milk producer, with about 2.2% of world production. Total production was 1.3 billion kg of milk solids, and NZ$8.38 billion of dairy products were exported in the year ending 30 September 2007.

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