“Particularly unusual this season is that the increase is consistent across the country. There have been years when we’ve had regions which have had good springs, but typically there have been falls in other parts of the country which have evened this out. What’s been a bit different this year is a consistent improvement from Northland to Southland, with nearly with double-digit growth,” Taylor said.

Taylor said Fonterra has never before had this level of peak of milk, and this has taken place at time of natural growth in the sector of 1-3%.  “What’s characterised this year is a much faster rise to the peak – much higher in percentage terms.”

 The peak of the season has just been reached in the North Island; it’ll be three weeks before the peak is reached in Southland, Taylor said. 

Fonterra has had to make minor changes to its product mix to enable it to  cope with the record milk flow. Milk is moved between regions occasionally so that all plants are operating at an even capacity to cope with the peaks.

“This may involve shipping milk from Northland to Waikato, or from Waikato to Taranaki, and Canterbury to Southland. We’re using rail to do this and also contract tanker operators. We normally use some contractors, but this year we’re using more than we normally do.”

Causing this peak is a good autumn, benign winter and great spring, plus good cow condition and calving. “Farmers also had a reasonable amount of supplementary feed they didn’t need to use during the winter. This element of additional feeding through the spring has obviously had an effect on production.”

But though it’s all good news now, farmers must be aware of the variability of the New Zealand climate. Taylor notes the possibility of a La Nina weather pattern during summer which could bring drying winds to eastern parts of the country. There’s no guarantee good weather will continue, he said. 

“With weather the test comes not when everything is working for you, but when everything’s working against you, and how you handle the curved balls from the climate. The industry is at the mercy of the weather. Last year we had tropical storms, earthquakes, snow and drought. So people say in the news media that the climate is more variable and more extreme.”

The present situation is akin to a surfer riding a wave. “Get on a big one and its happy days. But remember you can always get dumped by the wave and get the reverse.”