New Zealand’s Early Far Northern Dairy Co-Operatives

In 1897, seven year old Far North pioneer dairyman, Howard Dunn, was helping to hand-milk 30-40 cows at Pamapuria. The milk was stored in large vats which were then hand-skimmed for the cream from which the family of fifteen made butter and sold it to the gum-fields settlers for 6d a pound.

The farm also included ten acres of maize and fifteen acres of wheat and oats. The family sold the chaff at 2/6 a sack. They used the maize for making corn cakes and corn porridge for themselves and the rest went to the pigs.

In 1901 Robert Dunn, who had married one of Rev Joseph Matthews’ daughters and was Howard’s father, became a founding director of the Kaitaia Dairy Company (KDC). Farmers were expected to supply 140 pounds of fat per year for each cow guaranteed. Robert guaranteed the produce of twenty-five cows.

Factory produced butter was carted in two-ton loads by bullock to Awanui and shipped to Auckland weekly.

The first dairy factories set up by entrepreneurs had opened in the 1880s In Waikato and Taranaki. Entrepreneur-built factories were so successful that farmer co-operatives also began building them and by 1920, 85% of the existing 600 factories were farmer co-operative owned.

In Northland, the Oruru-Fairburn Dairy Company was established in 1901. By 1907 a milking plant for 60-90 cows, with the power to milk 120, had been established in Oruru. The Lawrence-Kennedy-Gillies machine was reputed to ‘allow a woman and youth to milk 24 cows per hour.’

That year the Victoria Valley Creamery also opened with supply from 242 cows guaranteed. The largest herd constituted twenty-five cows and the smallest, eight. The creamery supplied KDC until it burned down in 1910.

By then the Dunns were milking 80 cows by hand. Eleven year old Howard’s share was ten cows in the morning and again at night, between which times he walked to school in Kaitaia.

Every day Howard took twelve 20-gallon cans of milk by horse-drawn dray to the factory, a round trip of 2.5 hours. Barely useable clay roads meant farmers often had to cut ti-tree on the way to the factory and lay it across the tracks so they could get the dray through. Milk was separated at the factory and farmers were returned an allotment of skim milk to feed their pigs.

Cowsheds weren’t necessary when milking by hand and when a neighbour took ill, Howard milked his thirty-five cows by hand in the paddock twice a day, then delivered the cream to Victoria Valley Creamery for 30/- a week. The main dairying breed in the day was the Milking Shorthorn.

By 1909 home separators had become available. The 65 gallon Alfa-Laval separator cost £27/10, and by 1911 home separation had become the norm and the factory ceased its separation process.

Awanui began to supply KDC in 1909 but transport difficulties over rough roads led Herekino to start its own Company. In 1929, with suppliers opting for Kaitaia, Herekino was obliged close.

Utilising the new kerosene powered milking machine, Howard Dunn was able to milk 80-90 cows by himself from 1915, though he still developed land with horse and plough. A good horse team could turn over two acres a day.

Waipapakauri, Paparore and Kaiangaroa had been included in cream runs by 1916. By 1920 suppliers to Kaitaia Dairy Company numbered 136 and produced 213 tons.  KDC purchased a truck in 1921 and began picking cream up. Because Kaitaia couldn’t sustain the increasing output, in 1926 the Awanui factory was opened. Now Te Kao also began supplying cream, delivering it with the Land Board lorry which enabled Waiharara and Houhora producers also to supply. By 1934, the KDC truck also collected from Whatuwhiwhi.

Eventually dairy companies became involved with fertiliser, the supply of seeds and general stores, herd testing, pig marketing, lime supply, and the collection and disposal of bobby calves. They supplied WWII army and air department buildings to farmers at low cost for use as outbuildings. The operation of cool stores for butter opened the possibility for involvement with freezing works, and diversification brought dried milk manufacture, a veterinary services scheme, and the agency for Caltex Oil Company in 1949.

At its height, KDC had its own trading store with knowledgeable staff wearing dust coats. This building was by 2011 used as the Postie+ Shop in Melba Street.

 

Reference – Kaitaia Co-Op Dairy Co – 70 Years of Service – 1901-1971 –All Photos courtesy of Te Ahu Museum. Kaitaia.

©Theresa Sjoquist (2010)