New Zealand: Dairy sheep and goat turmoil

This month Maui Milk abruptly ended its milking season one month earlier, forcing 15 Waikato-based farmer suppliers to dry off their flocks. Hamilton-based Dairy Goat Co-operative (DGC) is asking farmer suppliers to reduce milk supply for the next season, possibly by one-third. DGC chief executive David Hemara told Rural News that the reduction is necessary to better balance incoming milk against forecast product sales for 2024-25. "This is a continuation of a cap that we have applied for several seasons and reflects changing demand levels in some markets since Covid. "While the final amount of milk per shareholder is yet to be finalised, we have advised shareholders that we expect that they will be asked to reduce supply to around two-thirds of normal level." According to Hemara, the global supply/demand situation for goat milk has been impacted by several factors including declining birth rates internationally and the collapse of the Daigou informal sales channel to China during ...