44 | Plant eligible to supply offal to China from page 42 Silver Fern Farms guarantees that no one is paid less then $24 an hour. Silver Fern Farms - Dargaville REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT BDX are proud to support Silver Fern Farms with fabrication and maintenance services. 09 430 2126 info@bdx.nz www.bdx.nz Call 0800 800 108 or 06 843 7300 or see www.fireandsafetytraining.co.nz 99 Niven St, Onekawa, Napier email: napier@fastltd.co.nz Fire & Safety Training Courses include: Fire Extinguisher Training / Fire Warden Training Breathing Apparatus Training / Confined Space & Gas Detection Training First Aid in the Workplace Training / Working at Height Training Permit to work & Haz ID / Elevated Work platforms Unit standard based NZQA approved Training Courses Phone: 09 430 3123 • kathy@northlandscaffolding.co.nz • 3 Pipiwai Rd, Whangarei • 1188 SH10 Bulls Gorge, Kerikeri Northland Scaffolding Specialise in: Domestic & Commercial Scaffolding Fall Protection Safety Netting Mobile and Access Towers Structural Propping Roof Edge Protection Event Towers, Bridges & Grandstands Shrinkwrap Encapulation Hanging / Suspended Scaffolding Northland Scaffolding are proud to support Silver Fern Farms Dargaville was one of the first plants to receive eligibility to supply offal into the China market. “We’re one of only a few plants in New Zealand that has full China listing for internal products as well as primal meat.” Fifty per cent of Dargaville’s kill is prime steer or heifer, about thirty per cent bull and twenty per cent cull cow, with a lift in value-add products across all classes of animal, saving more cuts than ever before because of demand from clients in China. Twenty five percent of what Dargaville processes is chilled and sold in sealed vacuum packs to countries like New Caledonia and the Middle East. Currently only frozen products are sold to China. Hides are processed off-site and exported as blue skins to leather manufacturers globally — mainly into Europe. Like many meat processing plants, the Dargaville plant operates a SCADA system, which is the brains of the plant governing things like how fast the chain moves. “We have a carcass recording system (CRS) that tracks carcass details throughout the primary butchery and Triton software that manages production into the inventory system. “We do have equipment that assists in the breaking down, or de-hiding, of the animal but we don’t have a lot of automation in the plant and most work is quite manual and very labour intensive. “We currently target 216 carcasses processed each shift with the staff paid on a production based incentive scheme, with three pay grades depending on skills levels.” Silver Fern Farms guarantees that no one will be paid less than $24 an hour. The lowest in Dargaville is about $26 an hour, with allowances on top of that. As a modern food processing export facility Silver Fern Farms Dargaville has an unyielding focus on quality, health & safety and production. “It’s like juggling three balls and you can’t have one without the other two,” says Lance. “Back in the day there was a focus on throughput, throughout, throughput. to page 46
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