Wrecked farms get a $23 million makeover
When state farmer Landcorp took over the dilapidated ex-Crafar farms in the North Island four years ago, it had little idea of the challenges lying ahead.
The operator of 16 North Island dairy farms formerly owned by the Crafar family won the Emerging Business Award and the overall Supreme Business Award.
Accepting the awards, the managing director of Milk New Zealand Holdings and representative of Shanghai Pengxin Group, Terry Lee, said prior to November 2012 Milk New Zealand Holdings did not have any operations in New Zealand and “growth had taken place very quickly over the last two year”.
In November 2012 the company bought the 16 farms from the liquidator, and six months later it reached agreement with the Maori owned dairy processor Miraka to produce UHT milk for export to China.
Last year Milk New Zealand became a majority shareholder in 13 dairy farms owned by Purata (formerly Synlait) Farms; in July 2014 Milk New Zealand Holdings applied to the Overseas Investment Office to buy Lochinver Station in the central North Island.
Lee says in November 2014 Chinese President President Xi and New Zealand Prime Minister John Key “witnessed our three way agreement with Miraka and Mengniu to work together to accelerate the expansion of the UHT plant”.
“Today, our own branded Theland and Mengniu’s Milk Deluxe, Global Selection are supplying Chinese consumers with high quality UHT milk.” Lee says it was gratifying to win the awards but the real wins are taking place on the company’s farms.
“We understand the affection New Zealanders hold for their land and have always emphasised that we see our role is as guardians of the land, committed to developing productive and profitable operations which are economically, environmentally and socially sustainable.”
Some examples of those initiatives include -
- The first farming company to introduce a long term incentive scheme enabling 12 people from Purata Farms to hold shares in the company.
- Since the settlement of North Island farms:
- Sixty houses have been renovated, and four additional houses built for farm staff.
- Around 1500 gateways have been installed for health and safety reasons.
- Two new farm dairies have been built.
- Water reticulation has improved with 900 additional water troughs.
- 300km of fencing has been erected to protect riparian and sensitive areas of land.
- Extensive regrassing – around 800ha -- is contributing to animal health and productivity.
- LEAN manufacturing (a method of eliminating waste) is in place on the South Island farms, the first use of this in farmingr. Milk New Zealand Holdings are active proponents of the approach.
