Tai Tapu Dairy ready for growth

Press, 26 November 1982, Page 21

Tai Tapu Dairy ready for growth

The Tai Tapu Co-op Dairy Company, Ltd, plans to be in the vanguard of a big swing back to dairying in Canterbury, according to its general manager, Mr Geoff Joyce. A Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries survey has predicted seasonal milk production in Canterbury and North Otago will, double by 1986, if current trends continue.

Many Canterbury sheep and cattlemen have been

envious of their dairy cousins on irrigated land as the drought has tightened over the past 18 months. Depending on the statistics used, the profit in dairying in Canterbury is anything from 40 per cent-to 100 per cent ahead of cropping and sheep. On a national scale, estimates of the number of sheep, beef 'and cropping farmers converting to dairying for the 1982-83 seasons vary from the Dairy Board farm production division figure of 150 to 200 units, to the M.A.F. Dairy Division’s conclusion that there could be up to 281. But each set of figures has the same message: dairying at present has s a financial advantage over other forms of livestock farming. In Canterbury, this means that dairying, for many years the poor relation of sheep farming and cropping, is improving in status through the harnessing of new irrigation schemes and the arrival of several North Islanders to take up irrigated land.

Tai Tapu is at the centre of this expansion — both in helping promote it and in providing facilities to cope with the extra production. At seminars held recently in Culverden and Darfield, the company presented the •case for dairying to more than 150 sheep and cropping farmers. i. .

The company arranged for speakers from the Dairy Board, Lincoln College and the Rural Bank to go over the economics of setting up a dairy herd and farmer reaction to both meetings was very positive. The company, has encouraged new farmers to switch to dairying, and existing daiiy farmers to up production through incentives.

These are basically 10 cents extra per kilogram on milkfat this season and 20 cents per kilogram next season on top of normal payments.

Existing suppliers get the incentive payment on any increase over their average output for the past three seasons.

Town milk suppliers who change to Tai Tapu get the incentive on all their first year’s production. Farmers who bring new land into dairying — former sheep or cropping' farmers, for example — get the incentive on the whole of their milkfat output for the first season.

To handle the extra production Tai Tapu has revamped its whole processing operation. The company’s new $4.8 million refurbished factory will treble output and can be run by five people from the computer control room. The Ammix milkfat processing plant — the only commercial installation outside Northern Ireland — puts Tai Tapu up with the leaders in milkfat processing technofogy. As well as conventional butter, the new plant can make margarine, various, mixes of butter (the additives make it easier to spread) and, ice cream (though the company has no plans at present to produce it). The company’s distribution business has been widely diversified.

Moove and Zap flavoured milk, Anchor yoghurt and other cultured milk products, Cloverlea products from the Temuka Co-operative Dairy Company, Ltd, Settlers Farmhouse Products varietal cheeses from the revitalised Barry’s Bay factory on Banks Peninsula, and a fruit juice sold on behalf of Metropolitan Milk Christchurch, Ltd, all. go to the customer through Tai Tapu’s distribution network. Modernisation of the transport fleet has been necessary to service this expansion.

Tai Tapu is also in the middle of a major upgrading of its cool store facilities. The improved . technology will qualify the company for an export meat licence and allow year-round use of the stores (meat companies need storage space during the dairy off-season). This season, Tai Tapu has boosted its number of suppliers by 18 to 131, including a number of former sheep farmers.