Generations of dairy farming in Southland

Gordon McKenzie is a Fonterra Farmer – his family are fourth generation dairy farmers in Southland. He grew up on a farm run by his grandfather and father at Seaward Downs.

“Back in the day, grandad and dad would drop milk off to the dairy site using a tank on our truck. The next generation down, my three brothers and I went into partnership to farm and now my three sons are involved. Like our family, there are a quite a few generations of dairy farmers in the region,” says Gordon.

“Initially not many saw the potential of dairy in Southland. I remember in my third year visiting Mystery Creek Fieldays back in 1992 we had to put up a map to show where all the dairy imports farmed. People thought that all we had down here was snow covered pastures and icebergs in Bluff harbour – and we’ve shown over the years that we can produce high quality milk.

“Edendale has put the rural towns surrounding it on the map. A couple of years ago we took our staff to visit the site, it blew me away. Wow, there’s been a lot of change, from starting off making cheese to milk powder and casein.

“You have modern technology to thank for that, now you have robotic forklifts – it has changed the way our milk is utilised, the team at Edendale create great products from it,” says Gordon.