94 | Fresh, unpasteurised & non-homogenised Kelly Deeks RURAL SERVICES » Glenwillow Farm Glenwillow Farm on the Timaru town boundary and its offshoot Real Milk Timaru have further closed the urban-rural divide, having already invited the public in on a daily basis to make purchase of healthful and nourishing raw milk from the vending machine at the shed, Real Milk Timaru is now making delivery of raw milk four days a week. Stu and Andrea are the third generation of the Weir family to farm Glenwillow Farm, with the family’s ownership dating back to Stu’s grandparents in the 1940s. Then the farm was 20ha and running 25 cows, now it’s 100ha and runs 200 cows. Stu and Andrea Weir are milking year round for Fonterra at Glenwillow Farm, and for the past 10 years have milked 15 cows separately once a day for Real Milk Timaru. They have a steady clientele coming in to the farm shop alongside the dairy shed, where customers can watch the cows being milked through a viewing window and often visit with calves in the nearby pens. For the convenience of their customers, Stu started up a weekly delivery route within Timaru. Demand for this service has grown the business significantly and Stu is now delivering four days a week. “People want a fresh, unpasteurised, nonhomogenised milk they can trust,” Stu says. “Our quality is assured with milk tested every 10 days for bacteria count, consistency, and quality, and our milk is packaged the old-fashioned, way, in reusable glass bottles.” The 15 Real Milk Timaru cows are typically Stu and Andrea’s lowest somatic cell count cows that show no pathogens and lower end producers, because they are only milked once a day. They come into the spotlessly clean shed before the main herd and are hand washed, iodine teat sprayed, and hand dried before the cups are put on. Stu and Andrea got into raw milk as a way to grow their production without growing their cow numbers. They have since built a unique dairy shed that offers improved cow flow and cleanliness for even more productivity for the same number of cows. “It’s a DeLaval Parallel Parlour. It’s like a herringbone but instead of standing in herringbone formation, cows are standing at 90° to the pit in individual bales with a lift-on head bale that runs the whole length of the pit. The head bale lifts up and the cows all walk straight out the front, instead of in single file with a herringbone.” Stu says the big bonus with these sheds is their suspended butt pan whose careful positioning at head height allows for a cleaner shed and a cleaner milker. “Our quality is assured with milk tested every 10 days for bacteria count, consistency, and quality.” Jess Williams (03) 684 5184 jess@turnbullgrainandseed.co.nz Main Road, St. Andrews PO Box 137, Timaru Cell: 027 633 6363 Phone: 03 612 6605 Email: www.standrewstransport .co.nz satrans@xtra.co.nz Proud to be associated with Glenwillow Contracting Stu, Andrea, and their relief milkers can all milk without aprons. “They are a fantastic shed to milk in, and still pretty unique in the New Zealand dairy environment. I think we have the only one in the South Island. Anyone thinking of building a new herringbone should have a look at this first.” Bay City Excavators Residential • Commercial • Driveways • Diggers Bulldozers • Augers • Tree Removal • Levelling Landscaping • Earthmoving • Dumping • Digging Demolition • Clearing • Excavation PROUDLY SUPPORTING GLENWILLOW CONTRACTING 027 584 5895 Parkside, Timaru
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