What was going on around the board table there at Tātua?

So we, back in those days, there was a, I think it was called a Association of the Smaller Cooperatives Association.

words to that effect.

So essentially what happened was that we had, we as the smaller co-ops could elect a director onto the New Zealand Dairy Board.

So I remember at one stage it was Murray Flett who was in Southland, which is interesting.

And there was another chap at one stage who was Tasman.

So the likes of Tasman, Kaikoura, Marlborough, Marlborough Cheese, Tatua, I guess East Tamaki for a while there, Western, of course, Alpine, John Rodley, John Rodley's company, the Otago people, and there was a merger of sorts there to create South Island Dairy Company.

What have been kind of over your years then, some of those kind of critical, pivotal moments since all the formation, since you took over, that have been kind of moments where, have been big ones?

Do you ever take on new suppliers?

Yeah, we do.

So we have a supply right prior to deregulation.

We spent a lot of time on our constitution and developed a supply right which was based on cooperatives in the USA called New Generation Cooperatives.

And the concept there is that the supply right gives the right to supply.

And for us, the importance of that was that if we were successful post deregulation, which has happened, we didn't want to get pushed around by milk that we couldn't control coming to us.

That's really one of the most fundamental things we did pre-deregulation was to put that supply right instrument in place with a new constitution and that's enabled us to concentrate on adding value to our existing milk rather than growing volume of milk and being pushed into commodity processing.

Mark Judney takes over as the new chair, and I was racking my brain thinking, when did I used to chat to Mark Judney? In several capacities, as it turned out, when he was at Fonterra, but perhaps more recently, in my mind, when he was the chief executive of PGG Wrightson.

Do you ever take on new suppliers?

Yeah, we do.

So we have a supply right prior to deregulation.

We spent a lot of time on our constitution and developed a supply right which was based on cooperatives in the USA called New Generation Cooperatives.

And the concept there is that the supply right gives the right to supply.

And for us, the importance of that was that if we were successful post deregulation, which has happened, We didn't want to get pushed around by milk that we couldn't control coming to us.

That's really one of the most fundamental things we did pre-deregulation was to put that supply right instrument in place with a new constitution and that's enabled us to concentrate on adding value to our existing milk rather than growing volume of milk and being pushed into commodity processing.

Mark Judney takes over as the new chair, and I was racking my brain thinking, when did I use the chat to Mark Judney? And in several capacities, as it turned out, when he was at Fonterra, but perhaps more recently, in my mind, when he was the chief executive of PGG Wrightson.