| Abstract: | Changes in the localization of dairy farming in New Zealand are interpreted in terms of environmental advantages, inter-regional competition, transportation costs and policies, and the behaviour of cooperative dairy companies. Since the 1920s dairying has become increasingly localized in environmentally advantaged areas. Competition among dairy companies resulted in o ver-extension of supply areas and disequilibrium between collection costs and economies of scale at the plant. Subsequently, some rationalisation of supply areas has occurred, notably since the adoption of tanker collection from the 1950s with cooperative dairy companies using differential transport pricing policies to discourage suppliers at the spatial margins. |
