More milk, less cow

Cows have reigned supreme for generations as New Zealand’s queens of milk supply, but there is some competition on its way.

The Government’s 2011 National Policy Statement on Freshwater Management is only now starting to echo through on how land use needs to adapt in coming years. With regional councils tasked with maintaining or improving the water quality under the policy statement, the twin challenges of trying to maintain an economic income off that land, whilst protecting or even improving our valuable environment have become clearer.

But with those challenges some exciting opportunities are starting to emerge in the “alternative” dairy scene, extracting high value milk solids from non-traditional species, particularly sheep and goats.

Both species bring some appealing advantages with them over their heavy weight cow cousins when it comes to meeting the challenges of environmental protection and economic return.

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