Title: Exotic Intruders

Author: Joan Druett

Publication details: Heinemann, 1983, Auckland

Digital publication kindly authorised by: Joan Druett

Part of: New Zealand Texts Collection

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Exotic Intruders

The dairy factory

page 58

The dairy factory

New Zealand had no cattle until the early nineteenth century, and, even when established, the numbers of herds were limited by local demands for milk, cream, butter and cheese. The immense distances to overseas markets prohibited the export of any dairy produce—until 1882, when the first refrigerated cargo left New Zealand on the Dunedin. This cargo included some casks of butter and cheese as well as the famous mutton and lamb carcasses; with the successful arrival of the produce in London the dairy industry of New Zealand was able to expand to a dizzying degree. Herd numbers greatly increased, and as the years went by the breeds of New Zealand became world-renowned for their production and the quality of their milk, butter and cheese.

Today almost all New Zealand dairy produce is manufactured in cooperatively-owned dairy factories. The first of these was established at Springfield, Otago, in 1871, and was supplied by horse and cart. Since then the milking machine has replaced the dairymaid and cowhand, and the centrifugal separator has replaced the skimmer and the churn. However the modern dairy factory, stainless-steel and tanker-supplied though it may be, shares the same background as the little village factories of the past, in that it is owned and administered by the dairy farmers themselves.