diff --git a/test/test_consumer_integration.py b/test/test_consumer_integration.py
index 9a7790eac..9f76f7f3d 100644
--- a/test/test_consumer_integration.py
+++ b/test/test_consumer_integration.py
@@ -25,20 +25,21 @@
 
 from test.conftest import version
 from test.fixtures import ZookeeperFixture, KafkaFixture, random_string
-from test.testutil import (
-    KafkaIntegrationTestCase, kafka_versions, Timer,
-    send_messages
-)
+from test.testutil import KafkaIntegrationTestCase, kafka_versions, Timer
 
 
 @pytest.mark.skipif(not version(), reason="No KAFKA_VERSION set")
-def test_kafka_consumer(simple_client, topic, kafka_consumer_factory):
-    """Test KafkaConsumer
-    """
+def test_kafka_consumer(kafka_producer, topic, kafka_consumer_factory):
+    """Test KafkaConsumer"""
     kafka_consumer = kafka_consumer_factory(auto_offset_reset='earliest')
 
-    send_messages(simple_client, topic, 0, range(0, 100))
-    send_messages(simple_client, topic, 1, range(100, 200))
+    # TODO replace this with a `send_messages()` pytest fixture
+    # as we will likely need this elsewhere
+    for i in range(0, 100):
+        kafka_producer.send(topic, partition=0, value=str(i).encode())
+    for i in range(100, 200):
+        kafka_producer.send(topic, partition=1, value=str(i).encode())
+    kafka_producer.flush()
 
     cnt = 0
     messages = {0: set(), 1: set()}
diff --git a/test/testutil.py b/test/testutil.py
index feb6f6d5f..6f6cafb5e 100644
--- a/test/testutil.py
+++ b/test/testutil.py
@@ -3,20 +3,19 @@
 import functools
 import operator
 import os
-import socket
 import time
 import uuid
 
 import pytest
 from . import unittest
 
-from kafka import SimpleClient, create_message
+from kafka import SimpleClient
 from kafka.errors import (
     LeaderNotAvailableError, KafkaTimeoutError, InvalidTopicError,
     NotLeaderForPartitionError, UnknownTopicOrPartitionError,
     FailedPayloadsError
 )
-from kafka.structs import OffsetRequestPayload, ProduceRequestPayload
+from kafka.structs import OffsetRequestPayload
 from test.fixtures import random_string, version_str_to_list, version as kafka_version #pylint: disable=wrong-import-order
 
 
@@ -67,26 +66,6 @@ def wrapper(func, *args, **kwargs):
     return real_kafka_versions
 
 
-_MESSAGES = {}
-def msg(message):
-    """Format, encode and deduplicate a message
-    """
-    global _MESSAGES #pylint: disable=global-statement
-    if message not in _MESSAGES:
-        _MESSAGES[message] = '%s-%s' % (message, str(uuid.uuid4()))
-
-    return _MESSAGES[message].encode('utf-8')
-
-def send_messages(client, topic, partition, messages):
-    """Send messages to a topic's partition
-    """
-    messages = [create_message(msg(str(m))) for m in messages]
-    produce = ProduceRequestPayload(topic, partition, messages=messages)
-    resp, = client.send_produce_request([produce])
-    assert resp.error == 0
-
-    return [x.value for x in messages]
-
 def current_offset(client, topic, partition, kafka_broker=None):
     """Get the current offset of a topic's partition
     """
@@ -101,6 +80,7 @@ def current_offset(client, topic, partition, kafka_broker=None):
     else:
         return offsets.offsets[0]
 
+
 class KafkaIntegrationTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
     create_client = True
     topic = None