Thursday, 15 November 2012 15:10

Studholme breaks record

Written by 

Fonterra Studholme, the co-op's newest site in south Canterbury, has broken a record already – producing a 924 metric tonnes (MT) of whole milk powder in one week.

 

At peak Studholme's drier usually processes 900,000 litres of milk per day, converting 625 litres of milk into about 260kg of milk powder every minute.

Fonterra managing director NZ Milk Products Gary Romano says Studholme is a good example of the co-op's Strategy Refresh in action.

"Growing milk volumes and optimising our manufacturing assets is a key part of our strategy to drive better returns to our farmers. Alan and his team are doing exactly that."

Fonterra Studholme site manager Alan Maitland says during the record week last month the drier operated 24 hours per day with no downtime.

"The record is an outstanding achievement and testament to the hard work of the 45 staff at Studholme," says Maitland.

"Our drier was only designed to produce 5MT per hour and we've managed to run it at 5.5MT per hour. This comes down to team work, skill and the meticulous planning prior to commencing production this season.

"People are really engaged on site. We've invested a lot of time to ensure the new team has a thorough understanding of the Fonterra Way, which is all about using our collective wisdom to make continuous improvements," Maitland says.

Sarah Cunningham, one of the site's advanced operators who has been at Studholme since its beginning, says it has been reassuring to become a part of the Fonterra family.

"A lot of effort was made to ensure we were prepared for the new season and, with a proactive approach to problem solving, it's been a fantastic start to the season" she says.

"At the end of the day we're all passionate about dairy. We love the industry and processing milk."

Since its integration into Fonterra's supply chain in August, the site has been Halal-certified and meets all of Fonterra's quality standards.

"We passed all customer audits first time and our quality grading has been 100% since day one."

Studhome produces standard whole milk powder for sale on the GlobalDairyTrade platform. The relatively small size of the drier means it is also well-suited for short and specialised manufacturing runs, if need be.

The 5-year-old plant sits on a 55ha site and has a production capacity of 30,000MT per season.

More like this

Fonterra trims board size

Fonterra’s board has been reduced to nine - comprising six farmer-elected and three appointed directors.

Returns 'not good enough'

Fonterra leaders are making their case for offloading the co-operative's $3 billion consumer business, noting that its return on capital has been nowhere near respectable.

Record milk price!

A record farmgate milk price for Fonterra shareholders is all but confirmed for this season.

Chinese strategy

OPINION: Fonterra may have sold its dairy farms in China but the appetite for collaboration with the country remains strong.

Featured

Massey Research Field Day attracts huge interest

More than 200 people turned out on Thursday, November 21 to see what progress has been made on one of NZ's biggest and most comprehensive agriculture research programmes on regenerative agriculture.

Expo set to wow again

Stellar speakers, top-notch trade sites, innovation, technology and connections are all on offer at the 2025 East Coast Farming Expo being once again hosted in Wairoa in February.

A year of global challenges

As a guest of the Italian Trade Association, Rural News Group Machinery Editor Mark Daniel took the opportunity to make an early November dash to Bologna to the 46th EIMA exhibition.

National

OSPRI's costly software upgrade

Animal disease management agency OSPRI has announced sweeping governance changes as it seeks to recover from the expensive failure of…

Machinery & Products

BA Pumps expand

Cambridge based BA Pumps & Sprayers, specialists in New Zealand-made spraying equipment, has acquired Tokoroa Engineering’s product range, including the…

Entries open for innovation award

Fieldays and its renowned Innovation Awards are celebrating their 57th year, marking a longstanding tradition in the agricultural calendar, with…

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

Chinese strategy

OPINION: Fonterra may have sold its dairy farms in China but the appetite for collaboration with the country remains strong.

Not fair

OPINION: The Listener's latest piece on winter grazing among Southland dairy farmers leaves much to be desired.

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter