July 8, 2010

Fonterra begins spring cleaning for new dairy season

Fonterra has begun its annual spring clean as it gets its 26 dairy manufacturing sites in peak condition for the new dairy season.

The cleanup will involve 5,000 operations staff, 2,000 local contractors, 2,000 bearings to be replaced, 2,000 vats to be flushed and 60,000 kilometres of piping to be checked.

"When we hit the flush of the season, we have more than 70 million litres of milk each day arriving from the farms of our 10,500 farmer shareholders," said New Zealand manufacturing head Brent Taylor.

"Our site teams need to be able to hit the ground running, with the aim of processing all that milk into product as efficiently as possible," Taylor said.

Taylor said each winter when milk flows have slowed, site teams upgrade manufacturing technology and get their equipment in top working order.

Taylor also said that the co-operative is known around the world for the quality of its product and the down-time over winter is used to maintain the standards.

"Like our farmers make the most of the season to catch up on farm repairs and maintenance, we make the most of this time to ensure our sites are in the best shape to turn our farmers' milk into product as effectively as we can," he added.