Where it all began
In the early 1920s the New Zealand dairy sector was rapidly becoming a powerhouse for the Dominion with exports of dairy produce primarily to England earning the country valuable income.
The first refrigerated shipment of dairy produce to England, in the ship Dunedin, took place in 1882 and the first co-operative dairy company was established on the Otago Peninsula in 1887.
By the 1920s co-operative dairy companies were growing in number and expanding with dairy leaders pushing for and achieving a Dairy Produce Control Board in 1923, backed by an Act of Parliament, to manage the transport and marketing of the country’s dairy produce to the world.
In 1925 the board decided it needed its own means of communicating with farmers and the wider sector so in July of that year the first issue of the New Zealand Dairy Produce Exporter (also known as The Exporter) was printed and distributed to 65,000 readers. The majority – 55,550 – were dairy farmers, but more than 400 overseas readers also received the paper along with NZ dairy company managers, board staff, parliamentarians, and rural professionals. From that first issue of tightly printed text, reporting on the decisions and activities of the board, market pricing and government, The Dairy Exporter quickly expanded its editorial content to include a wide range of issues that affected farmers and their families.
The first editor, Arthur James Heighway, was joined by an anonymous columnist ‘Economist’ who wrote about the financial aspects of the farming business.
The wide circulation and aim of serving farming families also saw the inclusion of women’s pages within the first year, including ‘Tui’ – later to become a household name and a standalone publication.
A fields editor was then added to the team to report on farm best practice around the Dominion with scientists writing articles to share their latest research findings.
