New Zealand: the dairy of the world
Audio 19:30
Herd of dairy cows in the Central Plateau region of New Zealand.
© Richard Tindiller / RFI
By: Richard Tindiller
5 mins
The world's leading exporter of dairy products, New Zealand collects 22 billion liters of milk per year.
In Auckland's business districts, world milk prices are even fixed.
For 20 years, the country has established itself on the world stage of dairy products thanks to its large spaces, favorable to the industry.
A success that has brought this small country of only 5 million inhabitants.
Not without fault, because this intense activity on earth has caused a lot of damage to the environment.
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In the Central Plateau region, in the middle of the North Island, arise the great volcanoes of New Zealand. It is here that Shaun Neeley runs one of the largest farms in the country. Like every morning, he goes aboard his pick-up for a tour of the stables. “
Morning milking is a hell of a job! At the Wairakei estate, where we run 19 dairy farms, we have about 20,000 cows being milked right now. Each day, each of these cows can produce between 20 and 25 liters of milk. During the spring, up to
20,000 liters of milk can be taken out per day per barn.
"
XXL production over more than 9,000 hectares in the open air. Per year, Shaun's farms produce 85 million liters of milk, 200 times the production of a French dairy farm.
Ultra-modern equipment but above all large spaces and a temperate climate. At the start of the 19th century, British settlers razed thousands of hectares to transform them into huge farms. But it was not until the late 1990s that this industry really developed. Because New Zealand had all the means to succeed: a small population and large spaces on which the 10 million cattle can graze all day. “
The dairy industry in New Zealand was built around weed,”
says Shaun
. This is what has enabled the country to become a leader in this industry, as weed costs almost nothing because using thegrass as the main feed for cows has reduced production costs at a very low rate.
"
But to keep that green grass to feed these cows, you need water. Lots of water. On average, 1000 liters of water are needed to produce one liter of milk. Water that must be drawn from rivers and groundwater. Because in summer, parts of New Zealand become very arid. This is the case of the central plateau and the 19 farms of Shaun. So the farmers are dependent on irrigation systems. “
On this portion of the farm, we used an irrigation pivot. He turns in a circle and waters the pasture during the dry season. There for example, we irrigate a little less than
1000 hectares at the moment and the quantity of water is around 1.7 million liters of water per hectare between the end of October until the month of February.
"
In total, this simple piece of meadow therefore consumes more than 14 million liters of water per day.
This is the equivalent of the annual consumption of a city like Avignon.
But whatever, in New Zealand the machine can't stop spinning.
Milk from Shaun's 20,000 cows will then go to Fonterra, New Zealand's largest company.
This group alone accounts for 30% of the world's milk exported.
The factory of thirty Fonterra factories in New Zealand, the world's leading exporter of dairy products.
© Richard Tindiller / RFI
Heavy environmental consequences
After twenty years of intense agriculture in the dairy industry, rivers and streams have become the victims of this sector. A problem for a country which boasts of a "100% pure" image in its advertising campaigns. Today, more than two-thirds of New Zealand's rivers exceed health thresholds. Pollution caused by effluents from farms that end up in waterways. But a voice is raised against this environmental catastrophe. Mike Joy's. This researcher at Massey University in Wellington has been evaluating the nitrate level in water for the past fifteen years. "
Nitrogen fertilizers are widely used in this land to grow grass. Cows eat this grass and most of this fertilizer ends up in cow urine and drains into soils, then rivers. Most places New Zealanders could swim before ... well now they can't. Finally if we talk about life in these rivers, New Zealand has the highest rate of endemic endangered fish species than anywhere else.
"
An environmental crisis, but also a health one. In New Zealand, most of the drinking water comes from rivers and streams. In some areas with a very high concentration of dairy farms, the government has even advised pregnant women not to drink tap water. “
New Zealand has the world's highest rates of colorectal cancer. And there they are highest, are where there is a large concentration of dairy farms nearby. It is clearly a growing crisis in the country and we can see that what we do to the land has a direct link with the health of the population.
"
A productivist frenzy which therefore ignored the environment and the health of New Zealanders.
Each year, the dairy industry brings in a windfall of more than 11 billion euros to New Zealand.
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