Hokitika-based Westland Milk Products said its milk production was running 5 per cent ahead of this time last year, despite a wet and cold season on the West Coast.
The dairy co-operative, New Zealand's second biggest after Fonterra, recorded its highest ever one-day collection when its tankers brought in justover four million litres of milk on October 31.
By November 29, shareholders had sent 335 million litres of raw milk to the company's plants in Hokitika and Rolleston with several months of the season still to go.
Coast-based shareholders produced a 3 per cent more milk on this time last year and Canterbury shareholders upped production by more than 14 per cent.
Chief executive Rod Quin said peak flows stretched Westland's processing capacity to the limit but a new dryer for Hokitika, expected to come on stream next season, and the UHT plant in Rolleston shortly after that would Westland to process more higher-value products even through the season's peak.
Quin said was not expecting Westland to have any difficulty on-selling the record production, with as much as possible being funnelled into added-value nutritional products.
