Big stake in sheep milk enterprise

Southland farmer-businessman Keith Neylon says he is so confident of the future for sheep milking he has converted a Brydone dairy farm 45km northeast of Invercargill into a 1000-plus sheep-milking unit.

Several attempts to establish a sheep-milking industry in the south have foundered, often over money and marketing.

Blue River Dairy Products' feta cheese plant in Balclutha had, until about 18 months ago, been run by five farmer shareholders. Its assets have now been taken over by Mr Neylon, the driving force behind the large-scale deer operation Southern Deer Corporation.

When the invitation came to buy Blue River Dairy Products he decided "to have a look at it" .

The energy and enthusiasm the company's farmer shareholders had put into the business impressed him and after gaining sufficient information to make a decision he was encouraged to buy it outright.

All of last season's feta cheese product was sold into niche ethnic markets in the United States where it had been received favourably, Mr Neylon said.

"Hopefully we can help to take it to a new level. It's got a lot of potential."

But a lot of work also had to be done before that full potential could be reached, he said. Central to that work was developing better milking breeds of sheep.

Herd testing would be used to identify the better-producing ewes for both lamb and milk production.

One factor that had held back the development of a sheep-milking industry was lack of raw product and economy of scale, a factor that encouraged the decision to convert the former dairy property.

The farm's foundation flock was mainly sourced from two South Otago sheep-milking properties that had opted out of the industry.

- NZPA