Pāmu Miraka Kau Dairy Farming

In 1814, Samuel Marsden brought the first dairy cows to Aotearoa for mission stations in the Bay of Islands. All settlements eventually had dairy cows, but in the early days butter was the only dairy product with any value, often bartered for other food or farm tools. In 1880, Aotearoa began exporting butter and cheese to Australia, and in 1882 Aotearoa sent the first export of frozen butter to London, United Kingdom. 

Āpirana Ngata was an integral part of Māori farming in the 20th century, encouraging landowners to form trusts or incorporations to run farms. This gave them more access to funds for land development, through the Māori Land Development Scheme. Dairy farming (alongside sheep farming) subsequently expanded on the East Coast. In 2010, Aotearoa’s first Māori-owned milk processing company was started, with shareholders including multi-generational Māori landowners. 

Most of the country’s dairy produce is now sold overseas, and today the Dairy industry is the country’s largest export earner, generating about $25 billion in revenue as of March 2023. In 2021, we counted 44,100 people in the dairy workforce. The industry is also a significant contributor to the Māori economy, with an estimated 11% of dairy businesses being Māori-owned, and 14% of the workforce identifying as Māori. 

Like other industries, Dairy Farming is currently facing some significant challenges, including climate change, climbing interest rates and a chronic labour shortage, all of which are making dairy farming increasingly difficult. The industry is already playing a proactive role in planning for future workforce needs with the development of The Great Futures in Dairying Plan – Dairy NZ.

Find out about our work to assess the quality of programmes delivered by providers for this industry here.