Faith Farm Fresh keeps milk flowing direct to customers
It's a busy time of year for Stacey Faith, calving 300-plus cows, rearing their calves and keeping the Faith Farm's roadside milk dispensing outlet going, providing locals with milk fresh from the cows over the fence - with the cream on top.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
a day ago
- RNZ News
Broken pump forces Hamilton firefighters to withdraw from house fire
The professional firefighters' union says crews are under-resourced, but their employer says they're trained to cope. Photo: RNZ / Tracy Neal A "catastrophic failure" to a fire truck responding to a Hamilton fire highlights how under-resourced firefighters are, the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union (NZPFU) says. But Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) says issues like this can and do occur and crews are trained and highly skilled to cope. Six fire crews responded to a garage fire in Flagstaff late Thursday night. On arrival they were met with a fully involved house fire. Hamilton local secretary for the NZPFU Jay Culhane said that while in the middle of fighting the fire, Te Rapa's pumping appliance lost the ability to pump water. "There was a catastrophic failure of the pump, so they lost water pressure to the firefighters, both to the internal and external firefighting crew," Culhane said. The crew inside the house had to withdraw from the building and the external firefighters had to move away. "The biggest problem is a fire doubles in size every thirty-seconds so the delay in operations ... you are going to lose more property and suffer more damage." Pumping operations were quickly swapped over to the Chartwell pump truck which began pumping water to continue fighting the fire. There were no reports of injuries to the firefighters. However, Culhane said more incidents like this were happening and poor planning and under-resourcing were to blame. "You can service an old truck as much as you want but they are still going to have issues," he said. A FENZ spokesperson said it had a fleet of around 1300 firefighting trucks. "Our firefighting trucks are well maintained, safe, certified, and legally compliant. We have a strict schedule for regular maintenance and repairs. "We typically spend more than $20 million each financial year on new firefighting trucks and other vehicles. In 2023/24 we spent $26 million, in 2024/25 we spent $20 million, and in 2025/26 we will spend $29 million." The spokesperson said since FENZ was established in 2017, it had purchased 317 new firefighting trucks. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
a day ago
- RNZ News
Raw milk faithful keeps dairy farmers on the hop
Faith Farm sells unpasteurised milk from an automated outlet south of Ōtaki Photo: RNZ/Sally Round Heading along the Kāpiti Coast's old state highway, you might spy a black and white cow on top of a shiny red shed. Not a real cow, mind you. It's a sign to pull off and pick up some milk, fresh from the cows grazing just over the fence. The customers come and go from Faith Farm Fresh, filling bottles and loading chilly bins at the fancy automated machines. Keeping the milk flowing here is all in a day's work for dairy farmer Stacey Faith, who, with her husband Andrew and farm workers, milks 360 cows at their farm between Ōtaki and Waikanae. Follow Country Life on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , iHeart or wherever you get your podcasts. "You know, it's all about being local and fresh," one of the Faiths' regulars said, topping up a glass bottle with milk from the dispenser. She was used to unpasteurised milk as a child - brought home in a bucket straight from the udder. Most of the Faith's milk goes to Fonterra, but 20 of the Friesians form the "raw herd", producing only A2 milk, and milked separately to supply the roadside shop with unpasteurised milk - also known as raw milk. Stacey Faith Photo: RNZ/Sally Round "We had no clue when we opened well over five, nearly five-and-a-half years ago now. I mean, we sat down with the bank, and they said, 'Oh, well, how much would you like to sell a day?' and we thought 100 litres would be good. And we average now 300 litres a day," Stacey Faith said. In New Zealand, the milk bought in shops must be pasteurised. Consumers are also allowed to buy raw milk, but producers must be registered, meet hygiene requirements, test milk for pathogens, keep records of sales and make sure consumers are aware of the risks of consuming raw milk. Faith said many of her customers have told her that raw milk helps them with ailments. "A lot of our customers come here because they're diabetic, they have psoriasis, they have skin conditions. I'm a dairy farmer. I'm not a doctor. A customer collects a week's worth of milk from Faith Farm Fresh Photo: RNZ/Sally Round "This is what our customers tell us, it's better for their health." The demand has surprised them. On the odd occasion, she said they've even had to close their doors, "because we had no milk until we milked the cows. And then it was just catch up that whole week, trying to get them back to milking three, four o'clock that afternoon." The big 18-wheeler trucks used to stop before the new highway opened, Faith said. They would take bottles of the milk to Auckland, but that's stopped now that the little red shed is on a side road. "We're allowed 30 hours to sell the milk, but we sell out sometimes before 24 hours." With the special hygiene and testing regime required for raw milk, it's all a lot of extra work for the busy dairy farmers. There is a strict cleaning regime for the raw milk herd Photo: RNZ/Sally Round One of them must always be available between 6am and 10pm every day of the year in case there's a coin jam or one of the pumps stops working. "So, you get a phone call, 'I've only got half a bottle of milk', you've got to come down and sort it out'." The cows must be specially cleaned at milking time too, taking at least twice as long as the main herd, which supplies Fonterra. The milk from the main herd will be pasteurised - heated to a high temperature to kill bacteria - once it reaches the processing plant. "As a place that sells raw milk, that's the only thing we don't have control of … people coming in and filling a dirty bottle. We do everything in our power to make it as clean as we can." The need to keep the milk taps flowing year-round means calving is an extended season for the Faiths. Stacey rears some 300-plus calves during the season Photo: RNZ/Sally Round On top of tending to the shed, testing and working as a swim coach, Faith will rear 300-plus calves this season, with the help of some automated feeding machines. Apart from the Friesians reared as replacements for the two herds, her meatier Hereford cross calves are sold to be grown on by lifestyle block owners nearby. While she takes it all in her stride, all the extra work the little red shed involves prompts the question - what's the point? "I just love the idea that we're getting rid of plastic because we've got glass bottles … how it used to be back in the day. The calves' feed is mixed and piped automatically to feeding stalls Photo: RNZ/Sally Round "It's great to see so many people bringing the bottles back to refill." She also likes supporting local suppliers and enterprises like the local MenzShed, where the bottle crates are made. "It's all got to be good for the planet and sustainability, supporting all the local people." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
2 days ago
- RNZ News
Faith Farm Fresh keeps milk flowing direct to customers
rural farming 15 minutes ago It's a busy time of year for Stacey Faith, calving 300-plus cows, rearing their calves and keeping the Faith Farm's roadside milk dispensing outlet going, providing locals with milk fresh from the cows over the fence - with the cream on top.
