Oh, Dairy!

Here's a view of just one of the many dairy farms we've seen as we've driven through the country side. I'm just amazed by the green grass and bright blue sky...it looks too good to be true!

Our first farm visit in New Zealand was to Leo Donker's dairy farm. We were greeted by a kind welcome from Terry, who manages the 1,000+ herd with a total of six employees. They graze all of their cows on paddocks (known as pastures to those of us from the U.S.), rotating them every 21-24 days. This time frame is set based on the amount of time necessary for the grass to reach an ideal level of nutrients without losing quality.

I've never seen such green grass in pastures, but it's largely due to the irrigation systems on their farms. That's a whole new blog post I'll try to write soon!

Here's a snapshot from our view of the rotary (or carousel) style milking parlor on their farm.
With this setup, they can milk 50 cows at a time. While some New Zealand dairies only milk once a day, the cows on this farm visit the milking parlor every morning and night.

New Zealand exports about 94% of their milk to be used in processed goods, such as cheese, butter, yogurt, and more. Because they aren't selling their milk for drinking purposes, they're concerned with the amount of solids produced by their cows. That means they're more interested in high butterfat content, noting that high volume is a waste in their eyes.

To get high solids (a.k.a. butterfat) they raise medium sized breeds of cows. In contrast, most producers in the U.S. raise large framed cows to reach higher volume because the milk check is based on liquid produced rather than the percentage of solids.

Now we know why New Zealand loves their ice cream so much! And we sure aren't complaining!

G'day mate!
Whitney