Sad ending for ‘happy’ cows
It was too good to last – the Happy Cow company based north of Canterbury has closed.
Owner Glen Herud was still taking stock of the situation and reluctant to comment in detail but said it was a problem of lack of capital.
The manager of one of the cafes he supplied, Supreme Supreme in Welles St, was busy making calls to other traditional suppliers like Meadowfresh and Anchor.
Manager Hayley Stoddart said the big attraction of Happy Cow was the locally sourced whole milk and personal relationship with Herud.
‘‘It’s something we can easily manage but it’s a real shame. It was an awesome company we really liked to stand behind. We loved working with him,’’ Stoddart
‘‘There’s a huge demand from people wanting to deal directly with the farmer.
Robin Greer, Retro Organics
said. Herud said there were huge costs in setting up and running a dairy operation. It needed multimillion-dollar investment.
In some respects Herud had a virtual operation on leased land, using a mobile milking platform which was also easy on the cows because they did not have to walk long distances.
Herud had also allowed calves to remain with mothers longer than most farm milking operations.
The popularity of his whole milk supplied in glass bottles was unquestionable – several Christchurch cafes swore by its creamier characteristics, and more than 15 supermarkets and retail outlets sold it for about $4.50 a litre.
This compares with the price at one Christchurch supermarket of a standard homogenised 1 litre plastic bottle of milk of $2.97, or the identical in-house branded milk for $2.35. Other branded organic and whole-milk products are available in supermarkets in Christchurch and around the South Island but most of them are Fonterra-sourced.
It is unlikely Herud will be setting up again in the near future.
He said he was in the process of selling the last of his cows and dusting off his curriculum vitae.
Herud ran about 60 cows in his boutique operation – well below the economies of scale provided in the average herd these days of more than 400.
Other organic and boutique dairy producers have also been unable to compete, including Retro Organics in Southland, which stopped production at the end of 2017.
Owners Robin and Lois Greer had been trying to sell the business, for some time but no-one had been prepared to make the investment.
Robin Greer said his health issues had been part of the reason for trying to sell the business and his farms, but no-one had been interested in investing in it.
The Retro Organics operation was based on a herd of 300 cows.
‘‘There’s a huge demand from people wanting to deal directly with the farmer.’’
The Greers retain one dairy farm and supply milk to major processors.
The business remains for sale and meantime Retro Organics is selling the cheese stocks it has available, including some special deals available on bulk cheese purchases.
Retro Organics specialised in handcrafting dairy products made on the Tuturau family farm in Southland, including chemicalfree cheeses, yoghurts and milk, as well as lactose-free yoghurt and milk.