Fonterra’s Studholme milk processing facility might be small in scale compared to others in the Fonterra family, but it punches well above its weight, winning Fonterra’s Best Small Site Cup at this year’s Best Site Cup awards, which it refers to as the ‘Oscars of Manufacturing.’
The Best Site Cup awards are made up of 17 categories, ranging from health and safety to transport and sustainability. This year was the third occasion that Studholme has taken the Best Small Site Cup home since becoming eligible for the awards in 2015.
Along with winning the Cup this year, the Studholme team was also runner-up for the Health & Safety Cup and the Compliance Cup. Proud of his team’s success at the awards, Studholme’s Operations Manager Alan Maitland says because of the high level of performance right across the Fonterra family, the wins don’t come easily.
“Many things must be in our favour to be as successful as we are. We need the best milk and we can thank our shareholders/suppliers for that.
Our team at Fonterra Studholme has always seen themselves as part of the wider organisation and knows that our success also depends on the support from others not directly associated with the site.
We’re successful because we know what is expected of us and have the energy and personal interest to do the right thing. We’re now looking forward to next year’s annual awards.”
Located in South Canterbury, with Waimate its nearest service town, the Studholme milk drying facility was purchased by Fonterra in 2012, with operations commencing that same year.
The facility’s workhorse is an Anhydro Powder Dryer and 15-megawatt Coal fired boiler. With optimisation, the dryers produces 5.4 metric tonnes per hour.
“Our powder dryer is relatively small compared to others,” says Alan. “We have the capacity to produce 30,000 metric tonnes of whole milk powder (WMP) annually.
In simple terms, the milk is transported from farm and loaded into our three 250,000 litre raw milk silos.
It’s then separated, standardised, pasteurised, and evaporated/concentrated before being dried and packaged in 25 kilograms bags for export.”
With Oamaru to the south and Timaru to the north, Studholme’s catchment area is Waitaki, Waimate and North Otago, which produces too much milk to be processed solely at Studholme.
“Our site’s maximum throughput is 815,000 litres of milk daily. The remainder is processed at our other South Canterbury site — Clandeboye.
A core part of our business model is that we’re a milk transfer station. Our site is used to balance the milk flow from farm to factory into Fonterra Clandeboye.
We’re also the winter milk processor for the South Island, while the other facilities close for winter maintenance.”
In addition to manufacturing approximately 7000 metric tonnes of WMP and 3000 metric tonnes of buttermilk (BMP), mainly sold in Asia, Studholme also produces higher-value Whey Protein Concentrate (WPC80).
“The base ingredient for WPC80 is Whey Retentate from the Casein process at Fonterra’s Edendale facility.
Our processing of Whey Retentate into WPC80 is important to Fonterra as it frees up the Clandeboye site to produce high-value Functional Whey Powders.
We also produce Calf Milk Replacer that we make on behalf of our sister site Waharoa in the North Island. In many respects, our site is an enabler for the wider Fonterra Business.”
Fonterra Studholme is operated by a team of 46, drawn mainly from both Waimate and Timaru. The site offers a diverse range of career opportunities including trades, plant processing operators, laboratory technicians, environmental sustainability specialists, farm advisers and leadership roles.
To encourage students to consider the dairy industry as a career, Fonterra Studholme offers an annual scholarship programme to Year 13 students at Waimate High School.
Available to one high-achieving student each year, the scholarship provides financial support to go towards further learning, and the opportunity for full-time work at the site during university semesters, usually in the plant to get an understanding of dairy products.
“Two past winners of this award gained full-time employment with us and progressed through to be production Team Leaders, with one going on to be an Environmental Manager,” says Alan.
“That person is now North Otago Area Manager for Farm Source.”
A local Rotarian and Area Governor responsible for Oamaru, Waimate, Timaru, Temuka/Geraldine, Alan is perfectly placed to identify community opportunities for the Fonterra Studholme team to become involved in.
“Projects have included planting days with Glenavy School at our wetland. Recently we supported Cannington School in their endeavours to plant natives on the creeks entering the Pareora River.
A recent 6Trees project saw the team donating a significant number of trailer loads of split wood to those in need in Waimate.
We also give back through the Fonterra Hapori Program — which is the remodelled Grass Roots Community Good program.
There have been rubbish picks ups on Skelton’s Beach, and cleaning graffiti off bus shelter walls of bus shelters.”
Looking to the future, Alan says Studholme’s immediate focus is on reducing the facility’s water usage and lowering its energy profile, as the business is committed to zero coal use by 2037.
“We have invested in a reverse osmosis plant to remove silica from our site water to enable further optimisation of our Energy Centre. The addition of a new Economiser and O2 meter on our boiler has also enabled us to reduce our overall coal use.”
