Milne was chairman of LIC from 1996 to 2004 and was part of the review team recommending the merger of Dexcel and Dairy Insight to create DairyNZ. He went on to become a founding director of DairyNZ until his retirement in 2010.
While he was LIC chairman, the company transitioned from a New Zealand Dairy Board subsidiary to a user-owned independent co-operative with a commercial focus on dairy herd improvement.
“It is still pretty much the strategy we have today and it is hugely gratifying that we are able to continue the work that Dave started in line with his vision,” King said.
“He was a tireless supporter of the co-op and all those who were part of it.”
Milne became a convenor of his local LIC group in 1980 and then a member of the LIC South Island Regional Board. He was appointed to the corporation’s board in 1987.
On stepping down as chairman he said returning LIC ownership to farmer users had been his goal.
“Getting the ownership restored, rightfully, to farmers was more demanding than I ever thought it would be – hugely challenging. I've felt honoured to head the world's most comprehensive herd improvement company. We're the only one with all the disciplines under one roof – the integration of these is the envy of the rest.”
As well as being on the board of LIC, he held directorships on the Karamea Dairy Company (1981-1987 and then the following year when Karamea became part of Westland), the Westland Dairy Company (2005-2008), was a foundation board member of Producers in 1984 until it and other Combined Rural Traders amalgamated in the mid-90s, and for many years was a member of the AgITO Regional Training Committee and West Coast Farm Training Scheme.
Westland Milk Products board chairman Matt O’Regan said Milne was passionate about farming and the people involved in it.
“He cared equally at a corporate level as he did for the training and conditions of farm cadets,” O’Regan said.
"Dave was not only a farmer leader but very much a leading farmer. He had the ability to debate and strategise in the boardroom and also the practical ability to run and develop a dairy farm in the Buller.
“The dairy industry has a lot to thank Dave for and is all the better for Dave's involvement."
Milne grew up in New Plymouth where his father worked for Post and Telegraph. He left school to work on dairy farms and then took on 39% and 50:50 sharemilking positions in Taranaki. He and his wife Margaret moved to Westport when they bought their first farm in 1977, on Victoria Road near the Nine Mile.
He was one of the first on the Coast to use a low-pressure dozer to shape paddocks to improve drainage and the innovation continued in the 1990s onwards with diggers which he used to flip Buller’s pakihi soils to turn them into pasture.
Developing land also included ownership of a portable sawmill, and many farm buildings and houses in the area have been built using timber milled by Milne, his family and friends.
David and Margaret were winners of the West Coast Dairy Farmer of the Year in 1982 and they won the AC Cameron Memorial Award in 1983.
As well as dairy farming, they owned the restaurant Cristy’s in Westport for many years in the 1980s and 1990s, with Marge often in the kitchen and Dave behind the bar.
They also started the tradition of the Nine Mile New Year’s breakfast which moved from house to house, year to year, with the neighbouring dairy farmers arriving after milking and only leaving again for afternoon milking, if they were able to.
Milne started playing indoor bowls when he was 12 and represented Buller for 37 years. He also played hockey for the Taranaki colts in the mid-60s and represented Buller in the 1980s until injury forced him off the field and he became team manager instead.
The Milnes shared their passion for dairying and Jersey cows with their children John and Cheryl, with John and his wife Jo now dairying at nearby Cape Foulwind and Cheryl on the home farm.
