Building is well underway on Hamish Hodgson's reusable glass bottle milk factory on his Hamurana farm. Photo / File
Building is well underway on Hamish Hodgson's reusable glass bottle milk factory on his Hamurana farm. Photo / File
Construction on the region's first-ever swap-a-bottle fresh milk factory in Hamurana is under way with residents poised to get a taste as soon as June.
Rotorua man Hamish Hodgson's reusable glass milk bottle factory Volcanic Creamery on his Hamurana farm is on track to be up and pumping in thenext four months.
Initial plans had the factory completed by December but delays such as parts coming from Europe amid a pandemic pushed the project back, Hodgson told the Rotorua Daily Post.
The business will run a swap-a-bottle system where people can buy their first bottle then once it was empty they can take it back and swap it for a new one.
The old bottles will be returned to the Hodgsons' farm where they will clean, sterilise and refill them on site.
Interest in his product had been "pretty good" as he had not started marketing but businesses had already reached out to him from word-of-mouth, he said.
His goal was to get a large local business to stock his product so he would have "consistent turnover", he said.
The operation was looking to cost about $500,000 to complete, however, Hodgson had received funding from the Bay of Plenty Regional Council to help with the project.
The Bay of Plenty Regional Council could not disclose how much funding was provided to Hodgson as a result of conditions with confidentiality clauses.
However, the council's Rotorua catchments manager Helen Creagh said the project had been approved under the Low Nitrogen Land Use Fund.
The project was a good example of delivering action for climate change, water quality while promoting sustainability and waste reduction, she said.
The Volcanic Creamy project model of reduced cow numbers, recyclable packaging and local distribution networks would all help achieve this, she said.
Hodgson said he planned to write up a report about the "feasibility" of creating a local project like this and demonstrate the viability of local pumping and distribution networks for the average farmer.
Building is well underway on Hamish Hodgson's reusable glass bottle milk factory on his Hamurana farm. Photo / File
He said he would also offer open days and collaborations.
Projects receiving funding are required to share outcomes and learnings publicly given the investment of public money.
The funding allocated to the Volcanic Creamery project was through the Rotorua Te Arawa Lakes Programme and was 50 per cent funded by regional council and 50 per cent by the Crown while overseen by the Rotorua Te Arawa Lakes Strategy Group.
The Low Nitrogen Land Use Fund was established as a result of advice from a collaboration of stakeholders in the Lake Rotorua catchment over a number of years.
It aimed to reduce the nitrogen loss to Lake Rotorua by 435 tonne annually, in order to achieve the long-term water quality goal for Lake Rotorua.
There were two funding rounds in both 2016 and 2018 and was open to applications from anyone, Creagh said. There was decent interest in both rounds.
To start, Hodgson's business would be family run and they would consider hiring others depending on growth.
He aimed to work on a zero-waste basis with even the bottles sign-written to avoid labels going to landfill.
He had even recently installed a new water recycling system that meant all rainfall from buildings and concrete would be collected and reused to wash down the cowshed after milking.
Hodgson said the rainwater would then be used again from the cowshed and the effluent it mixed with to fertilise the fields on the farm.
He said previously they had been pumping freshwater from a bore to clean the cowshed, which felt like a "criminal waste of water".
But Hodgson is not the only local mind starting something new with sustainability front-of-mind.
Owner of Logjiztix Limited Andy Best observes trial progress out Lake Okareka. Photo / Supplied
Owner of Logjiztix Limited Andy Best said his Auckland stumpage company opted to run a trial that would encourage farmers to change their land use in order to minimise the amount of nitrate runoff.
He was approached with news that two landowners in Lake Okareka wanted to create mānuka plantations as part of the council scheme to limit this runoff.
However, they had run into trouble finding a pesticide that could kill gorse but not the trees themselves.
Best and teams from Scion, the regional council and Agpro worked together to run a trial funded by the Low Nitrogen Land Use Fund to solve this problem and "fill a knowledge gap".
Best said there was not a lot of knowledge in useful herbicides for tree species other than pine and this would be beneficial for generations to come.
"It's a huge decision to change your land use as a farmer, especially if you've been farming animals on that land for generations. It will protect that investment for farmers and ensure that the young [mānuka] trees survive."
Large drones were used out Lake Okareka to drop the herbicide. Photo / Supplied
The trial began officially in November with large drones used to drop treatments across fresh and 14-month-old seedlings with 64 plots in total on land out at Lake Okareka.
Best said although it was early days, it was a success so far.
The regional council wanted to hear from anyone who had ideas for trials of low nitrogen land uses in the Lake Rotorua catchment.
