In early December, 17 Fonterra farmers from across the Canterbury region had the opportunity to experience an action-packed tour through parts of the North Island centred around a visit to the National Fieldays at Mystery Creek in Hamilton - an idea borne from Fonterra Co-operative Counsellor Geoff Spark and put into action by the Farm Source Canterbury Regional Head's personal assistant Annabelle Parish.
The tour started with flights to Palmerston North and a visit to Fonterra's Research and Development Centre - the first stop and a true highlight of the trip, says Annabelle.
"We had a great tour around various aspects of one of the largest dairy research facilities in the world, showcasing the pilot plant, the food lab and the sensory and consumer science department and then sit down and have lunch with the staff. We then went off to a local farm for a talk from the operations manager and tour around the cow shed and effluent system area. The next day we headed to our Lichfield manufacturing site and had a tour from management of the cheese plant and also checked out their wastewater plant," she says.
With an accommodation stop in Rotorua for the night, the next stop was the National Fieldays, where farmers had the entire day to roam at the event, including visiting the Fonterra site where they could meet and mingle with fellow farmers and Fonterra staff, taste the latest products and watch food service demonstrations made with Fonterra products.
"The following day we headed to Auckland where we went to our Head Office at Fanshawe Street. We had a great presentation from Haylee Putaranui about the pou in reception and its history and background; this was followed by a presentation from Aimee Elliott from our graduate programme - coincidentally her parents were on the trip with us!"
A presentation from Richard Tyson about the supply chain and distribution networks was up next, speaking to the farmer visitors about the challenges faced and how they had overcome them.
"After that we headed to the sixth floor for morning tea and it was great - we had Fonterra CEO Miles Hurrell, Farm Source Group Director Anne Douglas, and Sustainability Director Charlotte Rutherford all pop in and chat to the group over a cuppa!"
Receiving strong positive feedback from the farmers about the tour, we are hoping to roll out some more tours for farmers across the country.
"We are currently looking into a tour with Otago/Southland Fonterra farmers," Annabelle says. "It is so good to be able to undertake something like this that shows all the connections for our farmers beyond the farm gate and gets them closer to the Co-operative. The feedback from the trip was overwhelmingly positive and amazing, with the research and development centre definitely on the list again, as it was a favourite."
"We hope to give this opportunity to more farmers this year, look out for more information," she says.