Farmers moving away from dairy

  • 27/03/2016
Farmers moving away from dairy

Federated Farmers is disputing claims that dairy conversions will continue, despite a downturn in the market.

Dairy spokesperson Andrew Hoggard says people can see the sector isn't as profitable as it used to be.

"I haven't heard of too many conversions that are happening. I've seen the opposite happen, you know, a farm that was milking near on 800 cows is now milking 300 cows and doing beef. I don't think we'll see the sort of conversions we saw in the last decade happening for a little while yet."

Fonterra admits there might be a slowdown, but chairperson John Wilson told The Nation he doesn't expect dairy conversions to stop altogether.

Nearly 2 million hectares of land has so far been converted into dairy farms across New Zealand.

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