Dairying co-operation essential

Press, 15 May 1987, Page 12

Dairying co-operation essential

Without the strong cooperative spirit in the dairy industry its outlook would be very bleak, the outgoing chairman of the North Canterbury Federated Farmers dairy section, Mr Murray Wards, told the annual conference of his section in Christchurch.

The Dairy Board had come through a very difficult trading year without collapsing but actually expanding its operations to hold on to markets. Later in the annual conference a remit censuring the Dairy Board for buying overseas companies when New Zealand dairy farmers needed every cent of return was defeated.

One speaker pointed out that the board was borrowing overseas to buy importers and distribution companies and should it stop then returns to farmers by way of the basic price for milkfat would not rise in the short-term but could well be held back in the longterm.

The mover of the remit, Mr R. M. Manson, of Motukarara, said the requirement to pay interest on those foreign borrowings must affect, milkfat payouts somewhere along the line, although he said he was not against the board expanding in better years for farmers. Mr Wards said savings in administration costs and overheads from the recent mergers in the Canterbury dairy processing industry would benefit farmers. During the year the four dairy companies have been reduced to two — the newly-formed Alpine Dairy Co. (from a merger of Tai Tapu and Temuka) and Canterbury Dairy Farmers, which had absorbed Metropolitan Milk of Christchurch. “The decision to take all of the cost of the Plains shutdown from, this season’s milkfat payout has been a very bitter pill indeed to swallow, but one which will allow the newly-merged company to get on with producing top quality products, with maximum returns to supply shareholders,” he said.

He believed that the future for dairying in Canterbury was very bright, despite the gloom about at present, and that the province would become the centre of low-cost milk production on the borderdyke irrigation schemes.