Fonterra is confident it has resources in place throughout the country to manage its peak milk flow this dairy season.
Last season the co-operative dumped about three million litres of buttermilk, a byproduct of butter manufacture, at the Eltham wastewater treatment plant in Taranaki. The stench resulted in charges against both Fonterra and the South Taranaki District Council of breaching the Resource Management Act.
In another case, formal warnings from the Waikato Regional Council were handed out for breaching the Resource Management Act to three parties involved (including Fonterra) in the creation of a buttermilk lake on a South Waikato farm in October last year.
During the peak milk production period between now and December, the co-operative is using a site near its Whareroa plant in Hawera to store buttermilk before it’s irrigated on to farmland.
Fonterra, which has a resource consent to spread byproducts to land in Taranaki, is also delivering buttermilk to Taranaki piggeries and calf-rearers and is asking other farmers to use buttermilk as stock food or liquid fertiliser on their farms.
Plans to store buttermilk for short periods in a fully enclosed silo at the Okato cheese factory site have been shelved.
Fonterra managing director of global operations Robert Spurway said the co-operative had invested in more than 50 projects around the country to optimise milk collection, processing, transport and manufacturing this season.
A new milk concentration plant in Longburn is operating at capacity, processing two million litres of milk a day to remove half its volume before transferring it to the South Island.
«We’ve been working night and day to manage the peak in a pro-active way.
«We’re moving as much milk across Cook Strait as we can to use manufacturing capacity in the South Island, which has a later milk peak.
«We’re confident about our preparations this year.»
Fonterra will appear in the New Plymouth District Court next Thursday for full disclosure of nine charges of discharging contaminants into the air.
The council has pleaded guilty to one charge of discharging contaminants and will be sentenced on November 24.
Source: Stuff