Fonterra pitches in for planting day

 

A team of eight people from Fonterra’s Maungaturoto factory turned up at Stuart Brown’s Ford Rd dairy farm last Tuesday to help with planting up a wetland area he had fenced off for the purpose. This had come about as a result of a meeting between Fonterra’s site manager Rowan Hartigan and Otamatea HarbourCare’s Mark Vincent earlier in the year.

“Fonterra has a focus on the future, which is why it made sense for a few of us to come out for a couple of hours to help a farmer with some planting. It is great to be able to support someone taking an extra step in responsible stewardship of the land our industry is built on,” said Steve Gale, the site’s Environmental Lead, and team leader for the day.

Farmer Stuart Brown was really pleased to have people from Fonterra come out for the morning to lend a hand. 

“They were a great bunch, and did a great job. We were lucky with the weather too – it was a beautiful fine day, although a light frost on the ground made the job a bit chilly to start with.”

Reflecting on the day, Mark Vincent noted: “We had a real cross-section of Fonterra staff turn up, from admin and technical to operations and supervision, but what I saw was a single team of people working well together. It was great to be associated with them. Also, we got nearly a thousand trees planted. In fact I had to lay out extras because they went so well.”

TEAM WORK: The Fonterra crew add their support to the wetland planting project.