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Story: Farming and the environment

Intensification of dairy farming

Video file

In 1966, when this film was taken, a stocking rate of 150 cows on 120 acres or 1.25 cows per acre (2.47 cows per hectare) was considered high. Forty years later, average stocking rates had increased to more than 2.7 cows per hectare, with mainly Holstein Friesian cows rather than the smaller Jersey animals seen here.

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Archives New Zealand - Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga

Reference: Pictorial Parade 178. National Film Unit, 1966

Permission of Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga must be obtained before any re-use of this material.

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How to cite this page

Julia Haggerty and Hugh Campbell, Farming and the environment – Environmental impacts in the 2000s, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/video/17898/intensification-of-dairy-farming (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Julia Haggerty and Hugh Campbell, published 1 March 2009.