When Julian and Cathy Raine’s winter contract was cancelled by Fonterra in 2012, they had to come up with a plan to generate another source of income.
Their solution was to sell milk direct to the consumer using innovative vending machines, sourced from Europe and dotted throughout Nelson.
They have since branched out to selling their milk to cafes and supermarkets and have moved into ice cream production.
What sets Oaklands farm milk apart is that it comes from A2 cows and is sold in glass bottles, a material that is enjoying a resurgence in popularity.
But what is A2 milk? The Raines’ son Tom, who is operations manager and the ninth generation to farm the land, describes A2 as a product that is gentle on the stomach. Raine says that for some people who can’t drink milk, lactose is not the issue.
“Quite often it’s the protein that people struggle to digest.”
Making the transition to sell their own milk has had positive flow-on effects for the whole community, with increased employment and a renewed enthusiasm for home-milk delivery.
As an added bonus, the Raines are helping to keep one million plastic bottles a year out of landfill.
Raine laughs that there is a measure of envy when people from outside of the Nelson region hear about the Oaklands operation.
“It’s certainly been a jealousy thing, I think, from the rest of the country.”
But there’s good news for fans of the good old glass bottle everywhere.
Oaklands has rolled out its milk to supermarkets around New Zealand under the Aunt Jean’s brand.
For the Raine family, restructuring their business has been an expensive and exhausting process but also a rewarding one.
“It’s creating our own destiny,” says Raine. “It’s forced us to go out on a limb and to really take control of our product. It’s made us change our whole operation, certainly I think for the better.”