increase font size
Fonterra tankers at a Kaikoura farm last week.
Kaikoura's dairy farms are back in business, a convoy of tankers having resumed milk collection exactly three weeks after the 7.8 magnitude earthquake cut off all road access.
Five Fonterra tankers and 12 contract tankers went in on December 5 over the strictly controlled and still-fragile inland Kaikoura Road from Waiau.
Fonterra’s North Canterbury area manager Mike Hennessy says they were able to collect from all the dairy farms in the area.
Of the 22 farms, just three have unusable milking sheds. Of those, only one has sent cows out of the area and they are now being milked on six different farms in the Culverden area. One is owned by a farmer with a second adjacent farm and he is milking both herds in his second shed, while the third is also milking at a neighbouring property.
Outside the Kaikoura region, Hennessy says only one farm in the wider quake zone – Don Galletly’s Loch Ness dairy near Waiau – is unable to milk.
“A lot of sheds were damaged, their platforms jumped off their rollers and things like that, but they were up and running within two days. So they were very lucky.”
Power and water had been the first problem for the Kaikoura farms, but without pickups they were forced for three weeks to dump milk via their effluent systems.
Barring further closures because of poor weather or further slips, Fonterra intended to run tanker convoys through Inland Road every day.
Hennessy is pleased to be able to service the area. “Not as pleased as the farmers, but it’s another sign of things getting back to where they used to be.”
Meanwhile, Synlait confirms its half-dozen supplying farms in North Canterbury are also back in operation; milk was being collected within about two days of the quake. It has no suppliers in the Kaikoura region.
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has joined the debate around the proposed sale of Fonterra’s consumer and related businesses, demanding answers from the co-operative around its milk supply deal with the buyer, Lactalis.
OPINION: Farmer shareholders of two of New Zealand's largest co-operatives have an important decision to make this month and what they decide could change the landscape of the dairy and meat sectors in New Zealand.
OPINION: As CEO of the Dairy Board in the 1980s I was fortunate to work with a team of experienced and capable executives who made most of the brand investments that created the international consumer business Fonterra inherited. Soprole in Chile was the largest, but there were more than 20 countries where consumer marketing companies were established and Anchor and other brands were successfully launched.
Fonterra has delivered a fifth straight year of record organic milk price for farmer suppliers.
Fonterra says favourable weather conditions supporting pasture growth is boosting milk production.
Like many manufacturers around the world, European agricultural machinery and tractor manufacturers are currently operating in a difficult market environment. But they are heading to the world’s largest agricultural machinery event in Hanover next month with a degree of cautious optimism.
Established in 2021, the John Deere Technician of the Year Awards champion the important contribution parts and service technicians make to the Australian and New Zealand agriculture, construction and forestry industries.
Beef + Lamb New Zealand (B+LNZ) is calling on farmers from all regions to take part in the final season of the Sheep Poo Study aiming to build a clearer picture of how facial eczema (FE) affects farms across New Zealand.
New Zealand is closer to eradicating bovine TB than ever before, but possums remain a threat, says Beef + Lamb New Zealand.
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has joined the debate around the proposed sale of Fonterra’s consumer and related businesses, demanding answers from the co-operative around its milk supply deal with the buyer, Lactalis.
The ACT Party says media reports that global dairy giant Nestle has withdrawn from the Dairy Methane Action Alliance shows why New Zealand needs to rethink its approach to climate.
