NZ Dairy Winter 2021

30 | nz dairy DAIRY PEOPLE » Bella Vacca Jerseys Just pure milk from ‘beautiful cows’ Virginia Wright Proudly supporting Bella Vacca Jerseys For accounting services call us on 0800 438 393 or visit www.sumpters.co.nz Our advice has been trusted by Northlanders for over 30 years. By offering solutions tailored to suit each individual client we help to clients to unlock their true potential and be the best they can be. BAY OF ISLANDS VETERINARY SERVICES Proud to be supporting Bella Vacca Jerseys Ltd Kaikohe 401 1536 Kerikeri 407 7354 Waipapa 401 6654 Kawakawa 404 0842 Committed to Quality & Service Heat pumps | Air Conditioning Refrigeration | Chiller Hire Milk Cooling Systems Residential | Rural | Commercial | Sales & Service Ph 09 407 9087 e: cool@kerirefrigeration.co.nz w: www.kerirefrigeration.co.nz Proudly associated with Bella Vacca Jerseys – LIVESTOCK HAULAGE – Proud to support Bella Vacca Jerseys Ltd Call Pete on: 027 233 0004 Account Enquiries: 09 4019770 Email: o ce@okaihautransport.co.nz Proud to be associated with Bella Vacca Jerseys General Cartage Farm Machinery Supply & Deliver Post Peelings & Sawdust I t’s been six years since Northland dairy farmers Jody Hansen and Gavin Hogarth decided to go out on their own and put everything they owned into doing what they needed to do in order to no longer be reliant on Fonterra. “It was really hard work,” says Jody. “It took two years from the time we decided to do it to filling the first pasteurised bottle. There weren’t a lot of others doing it and it was very hard getting all the information we needed from MPI for our registra- tion, and there’s about six bits of legislation you have to abide by.” Jody and Gavin did it all themselves: “We imported our first pasteurizer and chiller vat from Greece; we bought a shipping container and lined it ourselves; everything we could do ourselves we did even though we couldn’t get money from the bank, so we sold our houses and put that in to building the first plant,” says Jody. That plant is in Pokapu Valley, out the back of Moerewa in the Bay of Islands where they milk 140 cows all year round, calving three times a year. They work 81 effective hectares of reasonably flat with a bit of rolling land on the 128 hectare farm owned by the Goodhue Family Trust. These days they sell thousands of bottles a day but the first run of branded milk bottles they bought for their pasteurized milk was for a total of 40 bottles four years ago - the net result of two years of hard work and a determined decision taken as the only way to get out of tough times. “We were supplying Fonterra, and we were “price-takers” when the Fonterra payout bottomed- out,” explains Jody. “I either had to go off farm and work or we had to borrow money to survive because pay-out wasn’t even covering our farm costs. So we thought why are we just sitting here taking whatever Fonterra tells us they’re going to pay us. Nobody in town would take a pay drop like farmers did. They wouldn’t wait 18 months to be paid for the work they’ve done, which is what Fonterra was making us do.” They made the decision to sell their own milk, which meant that they could decide what price they would get from it. Jody went back accounting for two years while they set things up back on the farm where they’ve now been share-milking for 10 seasons. The initial business plan was based on the as- sumption that the 300 litre capacity of their first pasteurizer would get them through their first year of trading. “We really had no idea what would hap- pen but we thought it would take 12 months to get to 300 bottles a day but we outgrew it in about five months.” They were always targeting commercial outlets for their full-cream pasteurized milk, initially in the Bay of Island and Whangarei. “Waipapa Four Square was the first store that started selling,” says Jody, “and they sell the most of any store that we stock even to this day.” The name of the business reflects its family-run nature; their grand-daughter Bella was still tiny when Jody and Gavin started their Jersey stud. “Poppa decided he wanted Bella in the name of the stud, so Bella Vacca is Italian for Beautiful Cow,” explains Jody. “This year my son Cam and his partner Amy are taking over the share-milking, so Gavin and I will run the business side of things, although we all do everything when we need to and the grandkids Bella and Jackson both help out when they can. They reckon they’re going to run the whole thing when they’re older,” she says proudly. With the share-milking taken care of, Jody and Gavin plan to expand their home deliveries in Auck- land in the short-term, and in the longer-term to expand home deliveries in Northland. Their home- delivery business for now concentrates on the Birkenhead/Northcote area and adds meat, honey and eggs to their own milk, all sourced from local family-run businesses. Their new web-site has set up an online ordering system ready for expansion once the glitches are ironed out. As far as their core business goes Bella Vacca now sell pasteurized cream and trim milk alongside their full cream milk. Not only has thebusiness ex- panded rapidly in the last few years, but so has the list of awards they’ve won. In 2020 they won the Emerging Land Based Business Award at the Bal- lance Environmental Awards as well a gold medal at the New Zealand Outstanding Food Producers for their full-cream milk. In 2021 they won a gold medal for their cream, again from the NZ Outstanding Food Producers, and a silver medal for both their full-cream and their trim milk. As far as Jody is concerned, whether it’s the number of litres they sell or the awards they win, their success comes down to one thing. “It’s pure milk, nothing’s added and nothing’s taken away. What you see is what you get.” Gavin Hogarth and Jody Hansen with grandkids Bella & Jackson, son Cam and partner Amy.