Dairy farmers are relieved Synlait milk will live to see another day, after winning shareholder approval to take out a 130-million dollar loan

It means the company, which reported a heavy loss earlier this year, can meet its debt payment to banks, due on Monday.

Synlait supplier Cameron Henderson says he was pleasantly surprised the shareholder vote was 99.6% in favour.

But he says most shareholders recognised that a 'no' vote was virtually voting their shareholding out of existence.