Sir William Goodfellow

1 Nov

William Goodfellow was an accidental pioneer in the dairy industry - he gained a foothold in return for a debt owed to his ironmongery - but once established he changed the face of dairying forever.

Through the Waikato Co-operative Dairy Company and later the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company, he led the industry to adopt international best practice. This included providing a quality premium on cream, establishing milk grading, introducing the first dairy company laboratory in New Zealand, starting a farm dairy instruction service and promoting group herd-testing.

Goodfellow was also an advocate of international marketing of dairy produce and influenced the government to set up the Dairy Produce Control Board in 1924.