Selwyn Times: April 15, 2020

6 Wednesday April 15 2020
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
SELWYN TIMES
News
CONVENIENT: The Doyleston Creamery was one of the first to be built in Ellesmere. It was considered to be a smaller operation but its central location proved
successful.
Thriving dairy industry had humble start
INTENSIVE dairy farming
is now an important part our
the district’s economy and
this is evident with the recent
establishment of two large
local milk processing factories
- Synlait’s near Dunsandel and
Fonterra’s at Darfield. However,
dairying has been a feature of
the district since the pioneering
days of the 1860s when marginal
land was broken in by the early
settlers.
The scale of dairy farming was
much different then. Most farms
had at least one ‘house’ cow to
provide milk for the family. Cow
herds were much smaller then
as milking was done by hand
and very labour intensive. Other
problems farmers faced was how
to preserve the milk in a time
when refrigeration was in its
infancy and expensive, and how
to get their produce to markets
when the main mode of transport
was a horse and cart.
It is hard for us to believe now,
but during the colonial era in
New Zealand it was only the
cream of the milk that had any
financial value for farmers. This
was mainly used to produce butter
and cheese which were staple
foods in New Zealand society
at the time that could easily be
made by housewives as part of
their daily chores.
By the late 19th-century butter
and cheese was being produced
on an industrial scale for both
domestic and foreign markets,
with much of this being exported
to Britain.
This led to the establishment of
local creameries throughout the
Selwyn district where farmers
could easily deliver their milk
for the separation process to sites
which were only a short distance
from their farms.
The first commercial dairy
factory built in the district was
at Tai Tapu. Described as ‘the
pioneer of dairy factories in Canterbury,’
the substantial building
of red brick and iron was opened
on July 19, 1888, and funded by a
local co-op initially consisting of
eight shareholders. The business
proved so successful that by 1903
the number of shareholders had
Historian and district council staff member Wayne
Stack continues his monthly look at Selwyn’s past.
Anyone with suggestions for future features can
phone Wayne on 021 119 9107. This month’s article
is about early dairying in the district.
risen to 205.
At the height of production,
the four Burnstey and Wyner
separators put 4500 gallons on
milk through daily, with farms
within a radius of four miles
supplying the milk. In 1900
the factory received 8.4 million
pounds of milk which produced
351,200lbs of butter.
One of the first smaller
creameries to be established
in the Ellesmere area was that
built by the Canterbury Central
Co-operative Dairy Company
on Drain Rd, Doyleston. Details
of the exact date this facility
was opened are sketchy but it is
believed to be sometime in 1892
when the company was first
established.
According to an article in the
Ellesmere Guardian in October
1893 initially there had been
adverse criticism from a number
of shareholders regarding the
chosen location of the creamery,
being two miles from the
Doyleston railway station.
However, it appeared that the
initial doubts of the practical
success of the creamery were
dispelled as it proved to be a
central and convenient location:
‘With only a few exceptions the
principal and good butter and
cheese makers are now taking
their milk to this creamery, from
the Leeston, Doyleston, Killinchy
and Brookside districts. Another
practical fact demonstrated is
that the factory system pays better
than the old hand system.’
The success of the creamery
was evident in the number of
farmers who had their milk
processed there. In 1893 there
were 36 local farmers supplying
the facility, with an average of
816 gallons of milk being processed
daily by 346 cows. When
separated, this produced around
75 gallons of cream for which
the suppliers were being paid at
a rate of 1 shilling and 3 pence
per pound of butter. The cream
Our Great
history
WITH WAYNE STACK
FIRST:
The Tai
Tapu dairy
factory was
described
as the
pioneer in
Canterbury.
was then transported by rail to
the main Canterbury Central
Co-operative Dairy Company
butter factory in Addington. The
company eventually built other
creameries within the district at
Springston, Lakeside, Irwell and
Dunsandel.
At this time the suppliers had
stated they were very satisfied
with the newly-established
creamery in that, along with the
reduced manual labour to the
farmer’s wives and families compared
to the old domestic system
of making butter, the farmers
were receiving an estimated 25
per cent greater profit by supplying
the factory.
Activity at the creamery continued
throughout the day. From
6.30am until as late as 8.30pm
farmers would continue to arrive
by horse and cart to deliver metal
cans full of milk and wait their
turn for it to be separated and
have the skim milk returned.
This was then used to feed pigs,
which most farmers kept for
domestic meat.
There was keen competition to
be the first arrival at the factory
in the morning, and many tales
were later told of certain local
farmers who gathered their cows
and milked them by candle light
just so they could claim to the
first to deliver their milk each
morning. On one occasion two
suppliers arrived at the creamery
at the same time and their carts
became stuck trying to race
through the gates in an effort to
be first.
Once at the creamery the
farmers would drive the dray
into a covered delivery loading
bay in the centre of the building
where the milk cans were
taken and the milk placed into
a separator. The cream was then
stored in a vat and the leftover
skim milk placed into cans and
returned to the farmer before
leaving. The whole process was
quick and efficient, and once the
benefits of supplying the creamery
became well known, farmers
from Irwell, Lakeside and as far
as Southbridge became suppliers.
The Doyleston Creamery
remained in operation until the
end of World War 1, after which
the building was turned into a
domestic dwelling sometime between
1918 and 1920. In 1963 Peter
and Jill Lemon purchased the
property and over the years have
extended and modernised the
building. The only features of the
original building still remaining
are the concrete foundations of
the separation tanks which are
now part of the lounge.
They have kept the history of
the property alive by naming it
‘The Creamery’ and it remains
a permanent local reminder of
the importance dairying played
in the early development of the
Doyleston area.