Dairy industry timeline

1871 - 2025 timeline of the dairy industry.

1871 First dairy co-operative formed in Otago, the Otago Peninsula Cheese factory Co-operative.

1882 Refrigerated shipping starts.

1886 Creation of the Anchor brand.

1895 Mechanical milking machines become more common and herd sizes increase.

1900 There are 152 proprietary dairy companies in New Zealand and 111 co-ops.

1909 Waikato Dairy Co founded by William Goodfellow (above) put up ‘a substantial amount’ of the capital required to launch The Dairy Exporter.

1923 NZ Dairy Control Board established with William Grounds as chairman.

1925 First NZ Dairy Produce Exporter published. First editor Mr A J Heighway (above).

1927 Dairy Research Institute established by the Dairy Board.

1933 Charles Burnard (above) appointed managing editor.

1937 Bill Gallagher senior makes an electric fence and it takes off. Herd Improvement Division of Dairy Board established.

1951 Milk tankers start to pick up milk from farms, first discussion groups held.

1952 Ron Sharp from Waikato develops the herringbone farm dairy.

1952 Thomas (Tim) Tyrer appointed editor of The Dairy Exporter. He has been the associate editor since 1935.

1965 Board name changed to NZ Dairy Board.

1961 NZ Dairy Production and Marketing Board, established as an amalgamation of the Dairy Products Marketing Commission and the NZ Dairy Control Board.Act of Parliament enacted formalising statutory role as single desk exporter.

1969 Merv Hicks from Taranaki develops the rotary dairy platform.

1971 Doug McGilvary (above) appointed managing editor.

1973 The UK joins the European Economic Community (EEC) forerunner to the European Union (EU).

1985 Hedley Dunn (above) appointed editor.

1985 Ruakura Milk Harvester invented as a new milk plant.

1990 Talk of deregulating the dairy industry and other sectors in NZ begins.

1992 Lance McEldowney (above) appointed managing editor.

1994 GATT Uruguay Round introduces rules for international trade in primary products.

1999 Kiwi and NZ Dairy Group are the two remaining large-scale dairy co-operatives covering about 95% of farms. Tatua and Westland are the only two significant co-operatives remaining. Twenty years later in 2019 Westland Milk Products is sold to a Chinese conglomerate Yili.

2001 Fonterra is formed by the merger of Kiwi and NZ Dairy Group with the NZ Dairy Board.

2001 The Dairy Industry Restructuring Act is enacted.

2004 Fonterra sells The Dairy Exporter to Profile Publishing.

2005 Glenys Christian (above) appointed editor.

2008 Profile publishing becomes 3Media.

2009 The Dairy Exporter is sold to CountryWide Publications (CPL) owned by Tony Leggett and Dean Williamson. CPL then sells to The New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX) creating a subsidiary NZX Agri also run by Tony and Dean. Stable of titles includes The Dairy Exporter, Country-Wide and NZ Farmers Weekly.

2012 Fonterra’s Trading Among Farmers (TAF) begins.