Co-op’s PKE tests roll out
Fonterra is to begin testing for palm kernel use from this month but the results will initially be for advisory purposes and farmers will not incur demerit points.
In an email to farmer shareholders last week, head of Farm Source Taranaki, Scott Walls, said the dairy co-operative was ready to roll out nationwide testing of milk for fatty acid changes caused by palm kernel expeller (PKE). The test would provide a score on a fat evaluation index which was based on Fonterra’s milk fingerprinting technology for measuring milk fat composition.
A pilot study of 200 farmers around the country had confirmed the test was accurate and supported Fonterra’s original voluntary guideline of three kilograms of PKE per cow, per day as a good rule of thumb across the lactation season, Walls said. ‘‘Feeding PKE up to this level should produce milk with a fat profile suitable for our manufacturing sites and our customer specifications.’’
PKE is produced from the mechanical extraction of oil from the fruit of oil palm and is popular with dairy farmers as a cheap source of supplementary fibre. Fonterra would provide support to farmers with results that indicate when PKE use would be in excess of the recommended daily limit. Initially, results would be for advisory purposes only and would not incur demerit points. The announcement was met with concern, but welcomed as a good starting point by Green MP Mojo Mathers.
The use of the word ‘‘initially’’ was a sticking point for Taranaki farmer Matthew Herbert, who said that while he understood where Fonterra was coming from, there needed to be clarification around how and when the testing would be conducted and the penalties which could be imposed. ‘‘Fonterra needs to clarify if or when grades will come into force if PKE is found to have been used in excess of that 3kg per cow, per day. There also needs to be clarification about how often it will be tested. Is it going to be every day, every couple of days or a rolling average?’’
Herbert, who milks 360 cows at Kaponga in Central Taranaki, said restricting PKE use could have serious consequences for some farmers.
West Otago farmer Bruce Eade said he had never used PKE as a supplement, but it was becoming increasingly difficult to comply with the rules and regulations imposed on dairy farmers and PKE testing was just another hurdle. ‘‘Where do you draw the line? Are they going to come and milk for us if we’re doing that wrong?
‘‘I’m all for animal welfare and looking after the environment, but it’s like the dairy industry has got too big too fast and people are milking too many cows to be able to afford an alternative feed [to PKE].’’
Mathers, however, said it was great to see Fonterra taking the step to begin testing for PKE content but called on the co-op to take it further. ‘‘It would be even better if Fonterra followed Landcorp’s lead and dropped PKE altogether ... Fonterra sources its PKE from [Singapore-based supplier] Wilmar, which is in the centre of a controversy over its use of forced and child labour.’’