State cash for dairy goats
A major Hamilton employer is getting a cash boost to help drive development in the dairy goat sector.
The Dairy Goat Co-operative is the first in the country to benefit from a new Government investment programme now known as Sustainable Food & Fibre Futures.
It will help drive the primary industry’s shift from volume to value, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor said at Kerry and Robyn Averill’s dairy goat farm near Morrinsville on Tuesday.
‘‘With a budget of $40 million a year, SFF Futures provides a single gateway for farmers and growers to apply for investment in a greater range of projects that deliver economic, environmental and social benefits that flow through to all Kiwis.’’
As a parent, he relied on dairy goat infant formula.
‘‘And my daughter who used it hopped back on to a plane to Melbourne yesterday. She’s 19 and it really does work.’’
Averill’s farm milks 1600 goats, producing 180,000kg milk solids. He names all of his goats and writes their names on their ear tags.
‘‘It’s easier to remember a name than remember a number.’’
This year he named one of the kids Neve, after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s baby.
‘‘Our son Shane actually went to school with Jacinda. That’s our little Neve,’’ he said.
The Dairy Goat Co-operative used the occasion to announce a new project to tap into the goat milk infant formula industry.
The project, known as the Caprine Innovations NZ programme, is the type of programme SFF Futures is looking for, O’Connor said.
‘‘It’s got through because from top to bottom this is about adding value to everything that people do in the system.
‘‘It has a value chain focus, will deliver environmental and sustainability benefits, grow an important industry, foster collaboration, build capability and importantly retain the benefits in New Zealand.’’
It will see $29.65 million invested over five years with 40 per cent of the funding provided from the Government and 60 per cent from the Co-operative.
Dairy Goat Co-operative chief executive David Hemara said Caprine Innovations was a big step forward for their 71 supplier shareholders.
The programme will include intensive worldwide consumer research, on-farm studies to understand their environmental footprint and clinical research to produce evidence that goat infant formula provided a positive difference to infants.
‘‘What we’re aiming to do is show the benefits that goat milk protein provides nutrition for infants.
‘‘This programme will allow us to take those big steps forward into the future.
‘‘It’s a very long term piece of work and will take us five to seven years but it’s going to be a huge boost for that next stage of the Dairy Goat Co-op that will make us more competitive so we can enter new markets more effectively.’’