Three companies want to build big dairy farms in the centre of the South Island called the Mackenzie Country. This is a beautiful part of New Zealand with lakes and mountains. It is near Mt Cook, Lake Tekapo, Lake Pukaki and Lake Ohau. If you drive through that area on the way to Queenstown from Christchurch, you will see some sheep on the farms.
This is a cold part of New Zealand. Green grass does not grow well in this area because there is not much rain and sometimes snow covers the ground. Brown tussock grass grows on the land but cows do not eat tussock.
These companies have asked Environment Canterbury for permission to build sheds for the cows. They plan to keep the cows indoors for eight months of the year, and then for the other four months the cows would stay indoors for 12 hours a day. They also plan to have nearly 18,000 cows in these sheds.
This is very different from the usual dairy farms in New Zealand where the cows are outside all day, every day and they eat the grass on the land. Such big farms are also different from the usual family farms. However, dairy farmers are getting such good prices for milk these days so it is not surprising that companies want to try different ways of farming.
They still have to get permission from Environment Canterbury. Many people will protest against the plans: the Green Party, Animal Rights groups, exporters and tourism groups who advertise our clean and green country, and other people who do not want this kind of farming in New Zealand.
I am writing in response to your opinions about the new farms. It is not a new way of farming, it is commonly used throughout Europe with great response.
As you said, it is MacKenzie Country, cold, little grass and snow.
It sounds like the perfect place to build these for cows. the cows would be indoors, therefore, no cows would be out in the snow, nor would they be worrying about the tussock.
You mentioned tourism. Are you aware of how many dairy farms have ‘visitors’ annually? Why would this be any different? These could be used AS tourist attractions.
‘Such big farms are also different from the usual family farms. However, dairy farmers are getting such good prices for milk these days so it is not surprising that companies want to try different ways of farming.’
How many dairy farms are there, in comparison to how many are family farms? Family farms are constantly being bought out by large companies. It isnt a fairy tale world out there!
The price of milk goes up, and people assume that dairy farmers are ‘creaming’ it. There has been much debate over this because people simply dont understand – when the price of milk goes up, so does everything else, but when the price of milk goes down, what else goes down? Do you have any idea on dairy farm costs?