We are Grasslands.
Formed in 2000 by a group of dairy farmers from New Zealand and Ireland, Canterbury Grasslands originally comprised 1,608 hectares running 19,500 stock units which were mainly Merino sheep in Hororata, Canterbury.
The first dairy platform was commissioned in 2004 and over the years several adjoining blocks of land have been acquired. In Canterbury we now operate 9 dairy units across 3,500 contiguous hectares.
In 2017 we expanded into Southland with the purchase of a property at Mossburn. Since then Grasslands has added four more dairy units taking the total effective dairy platform in Southland to 2,300 hectares. We also operate a 1,400 hectare lease farm in northern Southland providing support for young stock and wintering of cows.
In 2023 we further expanded into the Waikato with the purchase of a contiguous parcel of land of 3,000ha milking 6,000 cows. this unique block boarders the Waikato river and has an effective area of only 2,114ha allowing the business to explore sustainably activities of planting both exotic and native forests.
Company Values
People
- Leadership and teamwork
- Respect for everyone and everything
- Honesty, integrity and loyalty
Pride
- Pride in what we do - this means how we look after our environment, animals and people
- Be positive and look forward
- Work hard and always show up with the right attitude
Performance
- Challenge and deliver ‘best on-farm’ practice
- Value knowledge, learning and performance
- Set clear goals and expectations
- Be innovative
Our Culture
At Grasslands we strive to be leaders of pasture based dairy farming and encourage a culture of hard work, innovation and best practice. We feel privileged to be part of the dairy industry and value knowledge, learning and performance. All of us take pride in managing our assets in the most effective way so that we can produce high quality milk at a lower cost of production.
Our People
Our people share a common passion for the dairy industry and take pride in everything we do.
Across our three hubs we provide 120 jobs and opportunities for our people which includes supervisory staff, contract milking teams and youngstock management. They are supported by 3 administration staff based in our Canterbury office.
The business has a supportive shareholder base and is governed by an experienced and industry leading board. Together with senior management team, there is a wealth of knowledge and experience in large scale dairy farming, the global dairy industry, strategy development and implementation, international business, economics and finance.
We pride ourselves on being able to offer growth and development opportunities for our people, both within the Grasslands business and wider industry and our shareholders are very supportive of this.