How to make raw milk reliable for calves
Feeding infected milk is high risk for spreading diseases such as M. bovis.
It's time to give complying raw milk suppliers a break by easing the regulations on distribution, says a supplier.
Richard Houston, managing director of Takaka-based Village Milk, otherwise welcomes MPI's crackdown on unlicensed raw milk suppliers.
Raw milk suppliers can only sell direct to their customers, either at the farm gate – often through automated on-farm vending machines — or by home delivery. It cannot be sold at another location.
“Current legislation’s pretty tight on distribution,” said Houston.
“They consider the milk to be a really high risk but we’ve been running seven years now and we’ve never been faulted.
“We’ve got a really good procedure we follow every day, we test regularly and we’ve got great animals and a beautiful little farm.”
Houston said Village Milk is sold at the farm in reusable glass bottles, which his customers were managing “really well”.
“It would be great to be able to take the milk a bit closer to the people. Not everyone can drive to the farm.”
Houston said raw milk is fantastic as a whole food.
“The legislation’s there. The milk’s safe.”
Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.
The Ministry for the Environment is joining as a national award sponsor in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA from next year).
Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.
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According to the most recent Rabobank Rural Confidence Survey, farmer confidence has inched higher, reaching its second highest reading in the last decade.
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