By PAULA OLIVER and NZPA
Wildly conflicting reports of support are coming out of the dairy heartland just days before farmers vote on the mega-merger proposal.
Kiwi Dairies stronghold Taranaki is said to be strongly in support of the merger. But the results of a phone poll commissioned by GlobalCo's leaders suggest
the vote is teetering on a knife-edge - with 78 per cent of farmers saying they will support the merger.
GlobalCo needs a minimum of 75 per cent support within both Kiwi Dairies and the Dairy Group to go ahead.
The poll, of 2000 voters, was conducted by independent polling group UMR Research over the past fortnight.
Farmers will vote at a series of meetings held across the country on Monday. Their sympathies are being courted by GlobalCo's leaders - who are attending the National Fieldays at Mystery Creek in an effort to meet as many farmers as they can - and by members of the Farmers for a Better Dairy Deal group, campaigning against the merger.
Rumours in the industry suggest the toughest nut to crack for GlobalCo's proponents will be Waikato - where farmers are being closely targeted by anti-merger campaigners.
But Dairy Farmers of New Zealand chairman Charlie Pedersen said observers shouldn't put too much credence in the phone poll result.
"I know farmers who have been rung up six times with polls in the last couple of weeks, and to be honest they're now starting to have a bit of fun with the pollsters," he said. "I wouldn't read too much into that poll. From the people I've talked to, there's only a handful that will vote against it."
www.nzherald.co.nz/dairy
