Livestock Improvement Corporation and DairyNZ have come out with the statistics of 2009-10.

The figures reveal that after the addition of 50,000 cows in south island it accounts for 10.4% of the country's cows with 40% of the dairy production under its cap, Canterbury being the best of all with home to the highest producing dairy-cows.

In the country, there are 11,691 dairy herds. Average per cow production of 384 kilograms of milk solids was the highest in north Canterbury.

Last year south island had 809 dairy herds, which has seen an increase of 41 herds.

The figures also revealed an astonishing fact that the country has more number of cows than people. The number of cows in each herd was on an average 539, better than last year's 517.

There were 353,323 cows in 2007-08 which has increased by 100,000 in 2 years and the amount of milk also saw a rise by 200 million litres to 1.9 billion liters. The figures are heartening for New Zealand and they look forward to be the world leaders in dairy products.