BUSINESS CO-OP ANNIVERSARY
150 years of dairy co-operation
The Springfield steading on the Otago Peninsula today.
‘(Co-ops’) popularity was growing following the English Chartists movement between 1838 and 1848 which aimed to bring political rights to the working classes.’
The first page of the Otago Co-operative Cheese Company minute book now kept at the Hocken Library in Dunedin.
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Words and photos by: Karen Trebilcock
A
drop in the price of butter and the lack of good roading led to the origins of New Zealand’s first dairy co-operative. In 1871, about a third of the Otago Peninsula, had been divided into farms, many too steep and too small to profitably grow crops or farm sheep.
Instead, the mostly Scottish settlers had dairy cows, with a stocking rate of about one per hectare. Of mixed breeding, known as “colonial cows” but mostly Ayrshire the breed was believed tough enough to forage the hill country. Fresh milk was sold in Dunedin for four pence per quart in the summer and five pence per quart in winter but for many the roads between their farm and the town were too bad for a horse and cart. Butter kept for longer and was easier to transport. But on August 22, 1871, when the price of butter fell, eight farmers gathered at John Mathieson’s Springfield farm and formed the Otago Co-operative Cheese Company. Each farmer bought shares based on the amount of milk to be supplied, with each share having a value of £1 and representing the supply of 10 quarts of morning milk. Mathieson was the majority shareholder with 20 shares. In September, 150 years ago, the cooperative started making Dunlop cheese. Still made in Scotland, it uses Ayrshire milk, hard pressed from whole milk. It’s ready in six months but can mature up to 14 months.
Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | September 2021
