58 | nzdairy Bella Vacca Jerseys has its own boutique factory ‘It’s jersey milk, its farm fresh, and it’s a farm-to-table experience’. Jody and Gav 50/50 sharemilked for nine years on the farm, as their Bella Vacca Jersey milk business grew momentum. Nestled on 65 hectares in Pokapu, just 10 minutes from the more well known Far North township of Kawakawa, a busy farming operation embraces a small dairy farm, complemented with its own boutique factory producing delicious Bella Vacca Jersey milk products. The land has been owned by the Goodhue family for well over a century, and for the past thirteen years has been farmed by Jody Hansen and her partner Gav Hogarth, and more latterly by Jody’s son Cam and his wife Amy. While Jody and Gav 50/50 sharemilked for nine years on the farm, as their Bella Vacca Jersey milk business grew in momentum and production the opportunity arose for Cam and Amy to buy the herd and take over sharemilking responsibilities, supplying sixty percent of the farm’s milk to Bella Vacca Jerseys, and the balance to Fonterra. “It’s nice knowing that a large proportion of the milk we produce goes to Gav and Jody’s Bella Vacca Jerseys’ milk products,” says Cam. “You bump into so many people who say they get Bella Vacca milk and it’s so good to taste real milk.” The herd is predominantly purebred Jersey and currently calves three times a year to ensure a constant supply to Bella Vacca Jerseys. “The milk factory is right next door to the cow shed,” says Jody. “The milk gets pumped straight from the cowshed and into the pasteurizer. We predominantly wholesale our milk to stores and cafeterias from Kaitaia to Central Auckland, and we do home deliveries in East Coast Bay, Birkenhead, Newmarket, Remuera, Te Atatu, Hobsonville, and Henderson.” What makes the milk so special? Jody has no hesitation in saying it is all about the love that goes into producing it. “It’s jersey milk, its farm fresh, and it’s a farm-totable experience. It’s old fashioned quality with modern day convenience. Also the milk is not standardised, so there are variances in its taste depending on the cows’ lactation cycle and also what the cows’ have been eating. We try to naturally standardise the milk by calving three times a year.” While Cam didn’t grow up on a farm, he did spend a lot of time on friends’ beef and sheep farms in Hawke’s Bay. “As soon as I left school at sixteen I went farming and it was all I wanted to do. I was initially on sheep and beef farms and went to my first dairy job at eighteen. I was managing a seven hundredcow farm in the Waikato at twenty, low order share milking at twenty-one and we bought our first herd of cows when I was twenty three.” Cam and Amy are now in their third season leasing the farm, but Cam says their future may not necessarily lie in dairy farming, and are looking at buying a small neighbouring block. “We only milk about 150 cows now and the size of the farm is getting marginal for dairying. DAIRY PEOPLE » Bella Vacca Jerseys Ltd Richard Loader Proudly supporting Bella Vacca Jerseys CONTACT BRENT 027 2748 366 wazza_186@hotmail.com Proudly Supporting Bella Vacca Jerseys Excavator, Bulk Lime/Fertiliser/Metal Cartage, Flat Deck Truck + Trailer & Transporter Conventional Baling | Round + Big Square Silage & Hay Baling Seed Drilling | Powerharrow & Airseeding | Ripping/Discing E luent Spreading | Tip Trailers | Hedge Trimming This farm may get turned into beef at some stage.” Now in their our 60s, Jody says when the time comes to leave she and Gav hope to pass Bella Vacca Jerseys on to someone else who has a passion for Jerseys and providing good quality product to the public. “It’s nice knowing that a large proportion of the milk we produce goes to Gav and Jody’s Bella Vacca Jerseys’ milk products.”
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