Cracks found in Fonterra milk silos

Checks revealed cracks at other silos at Edendale, Southland and at one silo in Clandeboye, South Canterbury.

Fonterra chief operating officer global dairy operations Robert Spurway says repair work at the silos have now made them safe to use.

He says it’s too early to say why the cracks appeared.

“Our focus now is to understand why cracks appeared, then make sure they don’t happen again,” he told Rural News.

The silo, supplying milk to Edendale’s E4 milk powder dryer and whey protein concentrate plant, collapsed last month.

Now the silo is recommissioned and milk is flowing through ED4, the plant having reopened ahead of schedule. Around five million litres of milk were processed through the dryer over the first 48 hours of operation last week.

Spurway says a lot of work went into getting ED4 – Southland’s biggest dryer – back online following the silo collapse.

“We’ve engaged a strong team of third party experts and engineers to work alongside us throughout the clean-up and investigation. That has allowed us to get the dryer back up and running quickly, while also giving us further assurances that our site is a safe place,” says Spurway.

“While it has been a challenging time for those onsite and for our local farmers, the spirit and collaboration the team and community have shown over recent weeks have been encouraging.”

Fonterra is working contractors and Worksafe NZ to fully understand the issues that led to the silo collapse.

With ED4 resuming normal operation, the project team can begin gathering new data that will help them understand the particular pressures on the silos at Edendale.

“Silos face different pressures depending on a wide range of factors, such as ground vibration, wind and exposure to the elements,” says Spurway.

“As we bring the site back up to full capacity, we will monitor and gather further information from our silos that will help make all Fonterra sites safer places to work, including taking real-time data from several silos to give us more visibility of loading strains.”

The co-op is now working to restart its milk protein concentrate plant at Edendale and expects to finish the work in late November.