“But the long term prospects are still strong for dairying, and we have an industry strategy for delivering another $3.7 billion worth of additional export earnings to the New Zealand economy by 2020.”

Thursday, October 16 will be the first time DairyNZ holds its agm in South Canterbury and John says it’s timely given not only the dairy pay-out but also because of the new Canterbury Land and Water Regional Plan and its impacts on farmers.

“We’ve been reviewing all the technical work to understand the implications for dairy farmers so we can give them good advice,” says John.

DairyNZ wants to make dairy farming work for everyone. “A lot of our focus at DairyNZ is on helping farmers with how to farm profitably but with a lower environmental footprint.

“Everyone needs dairying to remain competitive, but we know that we also need to farm responsibly and focus on reducing our environmental impact.”

All New Zealand dairy farmers across all dairy companies pay DairyNZ a levy each year and combined with other research funding, it has an annual budget of $89 million

“A lot of that money goes into research, environmental initiatives and the development of innovative technologies and solutions to meet the future needs of dairy farms. Now with the looming prospect of a lower milk price, dairy farmers will be focused on reducing production costs. It’s a timely reminder of the volatility of our industry.”

In May this year, dairy farmers voted in record numbers to keep the levy and DairyNZ has more than 14,000 individual levy-paying farmers across the country and regional staff based all around the country including South Canterbury.