Survey reveals high rates of abuse and hardship among contract milkers

Over one-third of respondents - all holding private contract milking agreements with farm owners - had milk payments withheld.

Among contract milkers with a Federated Farmers agreement, 20% had milk payments withheld.

The Sharefarming Consultants, which carried out the survey, wants better regulatory protection and industry support for contract milkers.

The Contract Milking Experience Survey 2025 conducted in December last year had 276 responses, 201 as current contract milkers, equating to 12.8% of current contract milkers.

Sharefarming Consultants managing director Louise Gibson says results were disappointing but in no way surprising.

"We have for too long focused as an industry on attracting talent but failed to care for the talent once it gets here," she says.

Gibson told Rural News that the two key measures that would protect contract milkers are: moving them into the Sharemilking Act as they don't fit in the "contractors" bracket well; and a taskforce where contract milkers can seek support.

"Non-herd owning sharemilking was established over 100 years ago in recognition of the global issue of succession, with the Sharemilking Act being passed in 1937 to provide these sharemilkers protection from exploitation," she says.

“This has long been New Zealand’s secret to success and was largely replaced with contract milking as the answer to milk price volatility, but we will continue to have a really large financial gap if we can’t look back to those famers and learn from them.”

Gibson believes Federated Farmers should push for legislative change in a way that doesn’t see the Sharemilking Act repealed, rather kept and have the key definitions changed to provide contract milkers those protections, alongside pushing for a taskforce to provide the enforcement needed.

Feds dairy section chair Richard McIntyre told Rural News that there are mixed views on moving contract milkers under the Sharemilking Act and it is something the Feds Sharefarming section needs to discuss further.

McIntyre says the survey results were of concern and Feds took them seriously.

But he adds that majority of farm owners work incredibly well with their contract milkers.

“Of course there are some contract milkers who run into issues, just like there are sharemilkers or farm owners who run into issues too.

“My take is that the extent of incidents and issues of the kind raised in the survey are reasonably low but not insignificant.

“Having said that, one incident of abuse is one too many and we work incredibly hard to identify issues and find fixes.”

McIntyre says Feds have gone to great lengths to make sure their contracts are really robust and fair but they are always open to improvements.

On 45% of respondents facing abusive behaviour from farm owners, McIntyre says that number does surprise him.

But he says he would “gently challenge whether it’s an accurate reflection of what’s actually happening behind the farm gate”.

“There also needed to be some very clear timeframes put around the questions. Is this happening right now, in the last few years, or are people talking about an historic issue?”