A region once known as a land of sheep, is quickly becoming the land of milk.
In 2007-08 there were 1041 dairy farms from North Otago to Southland. That grew to 1164 in 2008-09 and 1218 for the 2009-10 season.
There were 177 dairy farms established between 2007-08 and 2009-10 and that figures looks like reaching 200 by the start of the 2011-12 season, with 26 dairy farms known to be under development in time to begin production next spring.
In addition to the new farms, existing southern farms are increasing cow numbers as recently converted sheep farms mature to become dairy units. The number of cows increased by 133,000 from 2007-08 to 2009-10.
Conversely, the southern sheep flock keeps on shrinking.
Beef and Lamb New Zealand figures show in 2008-09 3.547 million ewes went to the ram in Otago, 3.826 million in Southland and 12.281 million in the South Island.
The forecast for the 2010-11 tupping is 3.410 million ewes in Otago, 3.523 in Southland and 11.488 million in the South Island.
Nationally, the forecast decline is from 23.486 million ewes mated in 2008-09 to 21.992 million next autumn. The growth of dairying has been pronounced.
In 1980-81 New Zealand produced 5.868 million litres of milk or 491 million kg of milk solids, but in 2009-10 16,483 million litres of milk was produced or 1.483 billion kg milk solids.
Otago has 4.5% of the national dairy herd, Southland, at 10.4%, has the third-highest cow concentration behind Waikato at 25.5% and Taranaki at 10.9%.
The South Island accounts for 34.9% of all dairy cows, with North Canterbury having the highest average (384kg) milksolids per cow, followed by Southland at 376 kg/ms a cow.
New Zealand's 10 dairy companies in 2009-10 processed 16.5 billion litres of milk, containing 1.44 billion kg/ms with each South Island herd contributing on average 2,371,974 litres of milk and 207,835 kg/ms, more than double that of North Island herds.
North and South Canterbury were the biggest South Island producers, each herd averaging over 3.1 million litres of milk and more than 270,000 kg/ms.
Otago and Southland herds on average produced more than 2.3 million litres of milk and more than 200,000 kg/ms.