Thursday, 31 March 2016 07:55

Corporate farmers scoff ‘rumours’

Written by 
Aad and Wilma van Leeuwen Aad and Wilma van Leeuwen

The owners of one of New Zealand's largest dairy operations, the Van Leeuwen Dairy Group, say the operation is alive and well.

Adriaan and Wilma van Leeuwen told Dairy News by email from overseas that the South Canterbury business is not in receivership, as rumoured.

They also had heard this rumour, on RNZ National radio, but say it is "false". The group has 12 holdings and 12,000 dairy cows, and is the world's largest robotic milking farm. Last year it expanded by installing 24 Lely robots in three barns of 500 cows each.

Adriaan and Wilma also made the Rich List last year with wealth estimated at $65 million.

More like this

Buyer for VLG assets

The New Zealand Rural Land Company (NZL) says it has entered conditional agreements to buy assets from the Van Leeuwen Group (VGL), which went into receivership last week.

Testing continues

Testing is continuing on 16 Van Leeuwen Dairy Group (VLDG) farms in South Canterbury for the cattle disease Mycoplasma bovis.

Robotic farmers won over by nifty navigator

THE OWNERS of the world’s largest robotic farm under one roof, Aad and Wilma van Leeuwen, say they were particularly attracted to the DeLaval robotic milkers due to the Herd Navigator technology.

Featured

Australia develops first local mRNA FMD vaccine

Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.

NZ household food waste falls again

Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.

Editorial: No joking matter

OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.

National

All eyes on NZ milk supply

All eyes are on milk production in New Zealand and its impact on global dairy prices in the coming months.

Machinery & Products

Leader balers arrive in NZ

Officially launched at the National Fieldays event in June, the Leader in-line conventional PRO 1900 balers are imported and distributed…

JDLink Boost for NZ farms

Connectivity is widely recognised as one of the biggest challenges facing farmers, but it is now being overcome through the…

New generation Defender HD11

The all-new 2026 Can-Am Defender HD11 looks likely to raise the bar in the highly competitive side-by-side category.

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

Full cabinet

OPINION: Legislation being drafted to bring back the controversial trade of live animal exports by sea is getting stuck in the…

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter