Oat milk showing its importance

THE TOWN of Gore is deep in the southern part of the South Island, writes Gordon Rennie in New Zealand.

Many Scottish farmers settled here from the 1860s onwards.

So it is hardy surprising that NZ’s only oat mill is in the capital city of Otago, Dunedin.

The fertile arable land around Gore grows superb crops of spring milling oats, 10 tonnes per hectare are not uncommon

At a meeting in the town I heard of advanced plans to build a new oat milk factory in the area.

At present there are no oat milk factories in the country — the nearest is in Victoria, Australia .

Your correspondent had a glass this morning and it is an excellent lactose-free alternative to cow’s milk.

Oat milk contains Beta-glucan and this can lower cholesterol.

We also heard that the majority of Asian people can potentially become lactose intolerant once they reach puberty and the demand is therefore huge.

What I found of most interest is that oats will produce more litres per hectare of milk than if that same hectare was used for dairy farming.

If this project comes off then it will be a game changer as the farm gate price for suitable oats will be adjusted to ensure the profit per acre is equivalent to dairy farm profits.

Farmers in the Gore area do not require expensive irrigation as they have ideal rainfall.

I am hoping the Scottish Society for Crop Research in Dundee will establish a long-term programme with this group of Kiwi oat growers to discover the ideal variety and conditions.

I would be very interested to arrange a meeting with Scottish oat growers later this summer to see if there is any merit of a project in Scotland.

Oat milk contains Beta-glucan which can help efforts to lower cholesterol.