increase font size
Farmers must confirm periodically that their farm’s milk cooling system is performing to the standard set by the new rules.
Farm dairy operators must keep records to confirm that milk cooling requirements are being met and to confirm the capability of milk cooling equipment.
Milk cooling performance should ideally be monitored monthly, but as a minimum must be monitored and recorded about the time of the expected peak milk production and in February.
Each performance check must cover at least two consecutive milkings and the records must include the temperature of milk in each bulk milk tank immediately prior to the start of milking, the times milking starts and is completed, and the temperature of the milk in the bulk milk tank at the completion of milking.
Temperature measurements and recording can be done using several options: an electronic monitoring system, a chart recorder or manual measurements.
The accuracy of the temperature measurement device must be known because the data collected is an official record.
The dairy operator must move smartly to correct milk cooling performance if the information collected shows that milk is not being cooled according to the rules.
In such cases the milk cooling performance checks must be repeated to confirm compliance with the rules.
Milk not cooled according to the rules must be withheld from supply unless the milk has been assessed and confirmed as fit for purpose by the operator and/or dairy company.
As spring calving farmers around the country enter in the final stage of lactation, the incentive to keep the milk flowing is certainly there. A strong milk price and kind first half of the season has left cows in good nick and milking well.
As a strong dairy cooperative, Fonterra understands the importance of providing comprehensive assistance to farmers, including a range of services at no extra cost.
Fonterra farmers can now lease next generation milk chilling technology and enjoy the many benefits that come with it.
John and Donna McCarty no longer use intermammary antibiotics for mastitis or dry cow treatment, which has saved them money and improved herd health.
NZPork has appointed Auckland-based Paul Bucknell as its new chair.
The Government claims to have delivered on its election promise to protect productive farmland from emissions trading scheme (ETS) but red meat farmers aren’t happy.
Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.
The Ministry for the Environment is joining as a national award sponsor in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA from next year).
Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.
OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.
OPINION: Should cows in NZ be microchipped?
OPINION: Legislation being drafted to bring back the controversial trade of live animal exports by sea is getting stuck in the…
