The New Zealand Dairy Industry
Released 01 Dec 2011
MAF Pastoral Monitoring for the Dairy industry
Key Points for 2011-2012:
- The very mild autumn has seen most farms go into the 2011 winter with good pasture covers and cows in good condition.
- Farmers are buoyed by Fonterra's initial 2011/12 forecast milk price payout of $6.75 per kilogram of milksolids, plus a dividend of up to 30 cents per share. Although this payout is lower than 2010/11, an expectation of a 3 percent increase in production saw the budgeted
net cash income for the national model on a par with 2010/11. - Farm working expenditure is budgeted to increase 3 percent to $593 900; while farmers remain cautious on spending, they expect unit price increases on most items.
- Farm profit before tax is predicted to be down 7 percent on 2010/11 to $322 900, while farm profit after tax at $199 200 is expected to be down 27 percent, due to farmers budgeting for much higher tax payments flowing through as a result of increased profitability in
2010/11. - Many farmers are again budgeting for further debt reduction, and overall, the model is budgeted to finish the year with a cash surplus of $45 100 and a farm surplus for reinvestment of $164 100.
- While optimism within the industry has improved in line with the increased forecast payout, farmers are still cautious given recent payout fluctuations.
For more information and resources, please visit the Ministry's website by clicking here.
The 2010-2011 New Zealand Dairy statistics
New Zealand's dairy cow population is increasing at a greater rate than its resident human population, according to the New Zealand Dairy statistics for 2010/11. Compiled by DairyNZ and LIC, in 2010/2011 the total number of NZ dairy cow increased by 132,000 to just over 4.5 million cows (4,528,736), an increase of 3 per cent over the previous 09/10 season - whereas the resident human population (at March 31, 2011) increased by an estimated 0.9 per cent to 4,403,000.
For more information, please click on the names to go to the websites of DairyNZ and LIC.
Palm Kernel Expeller (PKE)
There has been so much misinformation about Palm Kernel Expeller (also known as Palm Kernel Cake (PKC) and Palm Kernel Meal (PKM). It has been deliberately spread by Greenpeace to blacken the name of New Zealand farming and calls into question the priorities and motivation of that organisation.
Migrant dairy worker guides
These guides, which Federated Farmers helped to develop with Immigration NZ, Rural Women NZ and DairyNZ, are free. Topics include employment and immigration law, keeping safe, working with animals, our changeable weather, Kiwi slang and expressions as well as adapting to our rural life.
For those wishing to employ migrant workers:
Are you recruiting migrant workers? What do you need to know? [3.7MB]
For migrant workers planning to come to New Zealand:
Living and working on a New Zealand dairy farm [2.66MB]
The guide for workers will also be available in Tagalog, for Filipino workers and in Spanish, for South American workers. Please click here for them and for other key Immigration NZ information.
Go Dairy for resources and information on everything dairy
Want to join the New Zealand Dairy Industry or want more information about what dairy farming really is? Then please click here to Go Dairy.
For more information from Federated Farmers Dairy, please click here.
