The Competitive Position of the Dairy Industry of New Zealand

Excerpts from the Introduction: New Zealand is predominantly a pastoral country uniquely adapted to dairying, in contrast with Danish dairying, which is largely dependent upon cultivated feed crops, both home-grown and imported. New Zealand dairy production is maintained primarily on permanent pasture lands with relatively slight dependence upon supplementary forage, ensilage, and root crops. Originally New Zealand was given over to the grazing of sheep and cattle with dairying carried on in a more or less desultory way as a relatively unimportant side-line, but now a dairy industry is maintained which, in value of output and export, is approaching first place among the country’s agricultural enterprises. The exploitation of the agricultural resources of New Zealand is shifting from extensive operations to increased production by more intensive methods. This is particularly true of dairying. More attention is now being directed by New Zealand dairy leaders to increasing the carrying capacity of established pasture lands by means of top-dressing and generally better care, increasing the yield per cow by means of cow-testing and culling, supplementary feeding and other methods of lengthening the lactation period, and care in selecting calves for replacing cows in the milking herds. Greater economy in the utilization of by-products such as skin or buttermilk through growing of calves and pigs is also being stressed, as well as general improvement in quality of product and methods of marketing. Effort is being exerted through the concerted action of New Zealand dairy interests to secure the most profitable disposition of their growing surplus, especially of butter, by developing new markets alternative to Great Britain, the long-established main outlet. Whatever form New Zealand competition may take in the markets of the United States, the surplus from that source may be expected to continue to affect our markets directly or indirectly.