South Island Dairying

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South Island Dairying

South Island dairying within the NZ dairying industry:

Dairy farming - NZ’s largest single industry.
96% of New Zealand’s milk production is exported.
New Zealand’s 12,000 dairy farmers work with or employ another 30,000 people on farm.
Thousands more are employed in associated businesses and in dairy factories.
Production – Over 1.85 billion kilograms of milk solids processed from 20.7 billion litres milk.
The milksolids production in 2016/17 was 41 per cent higher than 2006/07.
Population – NZ Average herd size 414; 11,748 herds; 4.86 m cows (2016/17 season)
SI average herd size 611 cows; 3,202 herds; 1,965,298 cows.
South Island dairy production – fastest growing, now represents approximately 43% of total NZ milk solids production, from 27% of NZ's herds and 40% of NZ’s cows.
Overall the South Island has larger farms, larger herds, higher production per cow and per hectare.

Herd analysis

Farming region	Total herds	Total cows	Total effective ha	Average herd size	Average effective hectares	Average cows per ha
Nelson/Marlborough	228	85,153	29,859	373	131	2.85
West Coast	379	155,655	69,723	411	184	2.23
North Canterbury	873	672,398	199,288	770	228	3.37
South Canterbury	311	232,678	71,814	748	231	3.24
Otago	439	256,497	88,242	584	201	2.91
Southland	989	563,017	209,133	569	211	2.69
Total/Average	3,219	1,965,398	668,059	611	208	2.94

Total New Zealand	11,748	4,861,324	1,728,702	414	147	2.81

Herd production

Farming region	Total kg MS Production	Average kg MS/Herd	Average kg MS/cow	Average kg MS/ha
Nelson/Marlborough	30,530,452	133,905	359	1,022
West Coast	50,849,212	134,167	327	729
North Canterbury	289,707,622	331,853	431	1,454
South Canterbury	95,935,671	308,475	412	1,336
Otago	103,298,018	235,303	403	1,171
Southland	233,638,484	236,237	415	1,117
Total/Average	803,959,459	249,754	409	1,203

Total New Zealand	1,851,008,259	157,559	381	1,071

Operating structures

Farming region	Owner-operators	All sharemilkers	Total herds
Nelson/Marlborough	190	37	227
West Coast	296	83	379
North Canterbury	679	194	873
South Canterbury	233	78	311
Otago	299	125	424
Southland	689	290	988
Total	2,395	807	3,202

Total New Zealand	8,503	3,208	11,711

(adapted from NZ Dairy Statistics 2016/2017, LIC-DairyNZ)

Canterbury and Southland have been the areas of largest growth over the last 10 years. The traditional dairying areas around the cities/large towns are experiencing land use change, primarily to lifestyle blocks. Many of these farmers are relocating their businesses to growth areas, and increasing the scale of their operation. The South Island has a significant number of large corporate farming businesses.