Corporate Farming

My day off and I went to Taupo.  The land use beside the road has changed a lot in the past few years.  What was once forest has been converted to dairy farms.  There has been  a huge amount of work done by earth moving machinery to clear the stumps and shape the land.  An internet search told me that the average size of a farm is 474 ha or 1,171 acres and that grazes 1,000 dairy cows.  Each group of farms has an impressive stone wall and line of mail boxes at the entrance.  Milk products where once described as white gold for our country.  I don't know what they are calling it now that the milk powder price keeps falling.  The forester's boss said when black and white cows are no longer profitable it will be very easy to plant back in pine trees.