Interim results from Electionz.com, the company that ran the vote on behalf of industry body DairyNZ, show 60% of 14,436 eligible farmers voted and 78% of them voted to continue the levy.
Weighted by milksolids, the results lift to 82% in favour of the levy with a 68% overall voter turnout.
Farmers pay a levy of 3.6c/kg MS annually and that will be unchanged until at least May 2016.
DairyNZ chairman John Luxton said the result was a record for the once-every-six-years levy vote.
The turnout was also well above the average for industry-specific levy referendums which Electionz said was 40%.
“It shows the co-operative nature and forward focus of dairy farming, New Zealand’s most important and successful business sector.
“It also reflects extremely well on the management and staff of DairyNZ for the great work they do.
“It’s a fantastic result and all credit goes to those who have voted and taken a proactive stance on driving our industry forward.
“It’s a strong mandate on all the indicators. That’s what we wanted from our farmers – and that’s what they have delivered,” Luxton said.
DairyNZ chief executive Tim Mackle said sharemilkers, in particular, responded to the call to have their say and their vote was up 13% on last time.
“That lift combined with more farm owners voting really made a difference,” he said.
“I’d like to thank every farmer who voted and those who helped us win this support.
“It gives us a mighty platform going forward. While this is a vote of confidence, we know we have to a lot of work ahead of us.
“Farmers have given us some clear messages during this campaign about what we need to achieve in the next six years.
“We have to meet a number of key strategic targets including delivering farm systems research to help reduce our environmental footprint by 30% while increasing profits.
“Dairy farmers aim to keep the NZ dairy industry internationally competitive and to continue to reduce its environmental impact.”
Mackle said final results would be determined once the total milksolids produced for the 2013/14 season was known – hopefully by the end of June.
“I expect some change but nothing significant. We’re still waiting for those final figures from the dairy companies,” he said.
