Fonterra in record milk production

Photo / Mark Mitchell

Dairy giant Fonterra has set a new record for the most milk processed in a single day, it announced today.

Commonly known as the peak day, the record was last Wednesday, when the the co-operative processed 76.8 million litres of milk across its 26 sites.

This was up three million litres on the previous record set last year.

Fonterra trade and operations managing director Gary Romano attributed the rise in production to more settled weather across the country.

"It was a slow start to the season with wet weather in the Waikato and Taranaki and snow in the South Island. However, this recent spell of fine weather has seen a sharp increase in production on-farm."

Rough weather at the start of the season, combined with a recent lift in milk production, meant Fonterra was late in picking up milk from some of its farmers.

"However, overall our people have done a great job in difficult conditions," Romano said.

Romano said the company had invested in the latest technology to keep pace with milk production.

"We've handled this growth while maintaining a strong focus on the quality of our products and the health and safety of our people and we're setting internal quality benchmarks in a number of areas as we continue to focus on improving our performance."

Overall milk production to date was now slightly ahead of last year but, with the season only a third of the way through, it was too early to talk about actual production figures for the year, Romano said.

- NZ HERALD ONLINE