Dairying surge biggest in Canterbury
Fonterra well placed to benefit from southern dairying surge.
Dairying in Canterbury has surged more than in any other region in recent years.
Canterbury is now the second biggest dairying region, with 1 million dairy cattle, trailing Waikato with 1.8m.
It now has 351,000 more dairy cows than 2006.
Across the South Island, the dairy herd grew 575,000, mainly in Canterbury, Otago, and Southland - more than half the overall national increase.
The South Island herd has gone from 23% of the total in 2006 to 31%.
In the North Island it is up 100,000 to 3.96m.
Nationally, the herd increased to 6.17m, up 4.4% since 2006.
Milk processor Fonterra is well placed to benefit from the extra cows in Canterbury, where it is building a new factory at Darfield.
The company’s witnesses at the recent resource consent hearing denied the new facility would encourage increased milk production, claiming it merely allowed for more efficient collection of milk.
The factory, which is nearing completion, is in the heart of a planned new irrigation zone being promoted by Central Plains Water and Trustpower, which have been fighting in the Environment Court over which entity should have allocation control once a water conservation order has been overturned to allow for more flow to be taken from the Rakaia River.
Chris Hutching
Fri, 11 May 2012
Fri, 11 May 2012
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Dairying surge biggest in Canterbury
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