Research farms

DairyNZ research farm sites are steeped in rural history. The area featured the first top-dressing, the first waxed carton milk and one of the earliest butter factories.

Captain James Runciman, who farmed the original 1200 acres as the Marshmeadow estate, was the first settler on the land after the Waikato Wars. Captain Runciman was an avid tree planter and some notable trees still survive on the property. One tree, a Manna gum (Eucalyptus regnans), planted in 1878, has once been recorded as the tallest tree in New Zealand.

The properties making up the present DairyNZ farms have been well farmed under dairying for the past 95 years by the original settlers when the government divided up the Marshmeadow holding in the late 1800’s.

• Lye Farm
• Northern Agricultural Research Farm (NARF)
• Prototype Farms
• Scott Farm
• WTARS