The visits are included for all Fonterra Farmers and are part of the wider support available through Farm Source, in addition to the range of quality products from key vendors like Ecolab, FIL, Deosan and Skellerup

After the visit, farmers receive a report detailing what was identified, and recommendations; the managers then check in to ensure the recommendations are clear and if any further support is required.

Waitaki dairy farmer Doug Rogers, who is a sharemilker of 1,000 cows on 281ha, had a Milk Quality Service Visit in February 2022.

“I’m always looking for ways to improve so I wanted to give it a go,” Rogers says.

After the Milk Quality Service Visit, Rogers received a number of recommendations to improve his milk quality and achieve his goal of under 150 SCC for 30 days.

“One suggestion was to get on top of SCC early in the season, as it’s easier to start low and stay low,” Rogers says. “We were also told to monitor over-milking: being aware if a cow goes around the rotary more than once.

“Another suggestion was to strip all the cows once a week, which has definitely helped with catching mastitis early on, and to do a one-off herd test around May to inform culling decisions, dry cow therapy and check SCC.”

Rogers says they also received feedback on things they were doing well.

“The positive feedback was really reassuring,” he says. “For example, the team is really quick and efficient when putting cups on and off, which keeps the cows calm. I thought we were pretty good, but it was good to hear from someone who sees lots of different farms.

“I would definitely recommend the experience to other farmers; I found it really beneficial to our operation.”

Waitaki Farm Source area manager Pam Phipps was involved in the process all the way through, from organising the visit to checking in afterwards.

She says the milk quality visits have had a positive impact in her region.

“I did some work around milk quality recently because as I’ve been doing these visits, I felt anecdotally and amongst my farmer base that year-on-year, milk quality had improved in terms of milk quality excellence days achieved,” she says.

She found that 65 per cent of the farms in the Waitaki region had in fact improved year on year in terms of milk quality, with one farm improving their milk quality days by 83 per cent.

“We were then able to say to other farmers, this is your opportunity in terms of The Cooperative Difference,” Phipps says.

She says it’s been great for farmers to have someone come in and advise them on simple changes that can make a huge difference.

“It’s been really nice to come up with solutions, help and support for our farmers, rather than saying, you need to fix it, but we’re not going to help you with that,” Phipps says. “And that’s really helped with the cooperative feel of working together. We’re all working for the same reason, which is quality milk.”

Rogers had a second visit to look at milking efficiency, which led to milking time reduced by 40 minutes/day.

And as for his goal to achieve under 150 SCC for 30 days?

“We haven’t got there just yet, but we’re looking forward to next season’s results following the changes suggested at the Milk Quality Service Visit,” Doug says.

As your local hub of farming support and supplies, Farm Source is always here to help. Valuable expertise, when you need it – become sometimes that’s all it takes.

The Farm Source team has secured great pricing on all the products you need this season including rubberware, shed hygiene and teat care – for all farmers, not just Fonterra farmers.