“It has been a stressful week for West Coast farmers cut off following the bridge washout, but Westland’s contingency plan is working,” says Richard Reynolds, Federated Farmers West Coast dairy chairperson.
“I wish to assure the public that when they hear talk of milk being dumped, dairy farmers are really disposing of it into farm nutrient ponds. I need to assure the public milk is not entering our waterways.”
The only affected collection area is south of the Wanganui River. All other farms are being collected with 22 tanker loads going to Open Country Cheese’s plant in Southland for processing.
A large transport operation is being coordinated by Westland Milk Products to collect milk from dairy farmers cut off by flood damage to the West Coast Highway near Hari Hari. Some 50 supplier shareholders of Westland south of the Wanganui River were cut off from normal tanker collection services when the northern approach to the bridge was washed away in last week’s rain storms. Access across the bridge was not expected to be restored until early this week.
Some milk has had to be spilled into farm effluent disposal systems but the company is hopeful the majority of the milk will be collected in the next few days using a fleet of tankers travelling the long way around from Hokitika (via the East Coast and Haast) with the help of extra tankers supplied by a contract collection company.
