New Zealand's South Island dairy boom continues

The dairy boom continued in Canterbury and Southland with the South Island dairy herd up 13% last year to 2.1 million, according to official figures.

 

The South Island dairy herd is almost seven times the size it was 20 years ago.

 

Canterbury was the South Island's largest dairying region, recording 10% growth to reach a herd size of 918,000, followed by Southland, where numbers grew 19% to reach 589,000, according to the final results of the 2009 Agricultural Production Survey.

 

National dairy herd numbers reached a record high of 5.9 million at June 30 2009, up 282,000 since 2008. The size of the North Island herd remained stable at 3.8 million.

 

Factors contributing to the South Island growth include continued dairy conversions, a smaller number of dairy cows and heifers going to the beef herd, more older cows remaining in milking herds, and the sourcing of dairy heifers from the North Island.

 

"In 2009, South Island dairy cattle numbers were almost seven times larger than 20 years ago when there were 312,000 dairy cattle," said agricultural statistics manager Gary Dunnet. "North Island numbers increased from three million to 3.8 million over the same period."