Milk production, which opened on August 1, started well ahead of previous years and forecast, a trend that was mirrored across the country. Dairy Companies Association/NZX New Zealand figures show that nationally early season milk production is up by 6.5% YoY (September YTD).

We also had a strong season for producing colostrum, a product sought after world-wide, due to NZ origin claims and the quality of our finished product.

As we enter the traditional peak part of the season, the outlook for production remains on track barring any significant weather changes, such as that we experienced in mid-September and late October which reminded us of the unpredictability of weather in spring.

While our current production figures are good news, we are having to carefully manage our sites and production facilities to ensure all milk is processed efficiently into products such as butter, skim milk powder, casein or milk protein concentrate.

In October our businesses were processing over 4.2 million litres of milk a day. On our highest day we produce almost 1000 tonnes of finished products across our manufacturing sites.

Peak production means we’re busy at every part of the process, from our farmer suppliers to our warehouse teams working 24/7 picking and packing the goods into containers for export, at times averaging 40 containers a day.