PKW operations manager Mike Swift. Photo/ Alyssa Smith
A Beef + Lamb event has taught a number of Taranaki farmers the benefit of milking sheep.
On Wednesday, over 100 people travelled to Parininihi ki Waitōtara (PKW)’s Koetuku farm in Normanby, South Taranaki to learn about sheep milking, and witness it first-hand.
The farm hosted the Beef + Lamb NZ Taranaki Farming for Profit Field Day, aimed at teaching farmers about sheep milking, and encouraging more Taranaki farmers to start the journey.
As well as hearing a number of speakers present, the farmers also witnessed 1600 Zealandia ewes being milked.
PKW Miraka Hipi (sheep milking) is the formation of two sheep milking platforms, 50ha Waitokorau and 70ha Koetuku. Both farms are former bovine dairy and dairy replacement grazing farms. The names for the farms were gifted by local hapū, based on the history and meaning of the place they are located.
The full conversion to sheep milking, including two new dairy sheds, barns, fencing, and supporting infrastructure, was commissioned in June 2022 with the first milk supplied to Spring Sheep Milk Company in August and bound for the export market in the form of infant formula.
PKW operations manager Mike Swift told the audience about their sheep-milking journey.
“Our chief executive wanted to diversify and after looking at a number of options we settled on sheep farming. We started this adventure in August last year. Taranaki has good land for sheep making it the perfect place to start sheep milking.”
He said Spring Sheep Milk Company, the largest in the southern hemisphere, was the catalyst for PKW to start sheep milking.
“We supply our milk to them. We’re one of only 16 suppliers to the company throughout the country. We supply roughly 300 litres of sheep milk a year.”
The milk can’t come from just any sheep, Mike said, with Spring Sheep supplying the genetics for the Zealandia ewes.
“They have their own genetics programme registered as Zealandia. They have three breeding flocks. It takes years to build up the right genetics and Spring Sheep sold us the needed sheep to get our journey started.”
PKW wants to expand the business and have a wider strategy to have 800-900 hectares for sheep milking, resulting in about 14,000 ewes.
“The economic environment is changing. There is a lot to do to get to this point but it’s where we want to be in the future.”
Spring Sheep commercial manager Joseph Highet was also at the event. He said Spring Sheep’s purpose is to make dairy better by being gentler on animals, milk and consumers.
“One of our biggest consumers is infants, with the milk we receive is made into infant formula. Sheep milk is fantastic for lactose intolerance and it’s proven to be more digestible than bovine and goat’s milk.”
Spring Sheep supplies the formula to China, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand.
“We aim to increase our supply by targeting the United States, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Thailand.”
Joseph said the PKW farm is a great supplier, and Spring Sheep would like more suppliers from Taranaki.
“We want to grow. The rationale for people joining is the social aspect, the environmentally positive factors and of course the economic value in sheep milking. We want to have more than 30 sheep dairy suppliers in Taranaki by 2030. We started with PKW and now have around 16. We’re looking to expand that and we hope this open day answers your questions and encourages you to start the sheep milking journey.”