The Milk Barn, Palmy, NZ

01/09/2026

Looking good guys! All going well The Milk Barn should be open by late Sept 🤞

01/09/2026

01/09/2026

Hi everyone! 👋 We are loving the messages of encouragement! Who has driven past recently??
Spring has sprung and The Milk Shop is springing along. Greg quickly realised that he couldn't farm, calve, teach heifers how to moove from the paddock to the cowshed and milk themselves AND build a shop by himself so thanks Perry Fourby Built Limited. & Harry Stout Roofing for fitting us in to complete the external cladding & roofing and this week Colin is builder in charge with Greg & Flynn helping him put in the ceiling today, all 5m lengths of it 💪 and the internal walls. Kurt from Agri Solar & Automation Ltd has sprung into action with the solar & electrical and a million other tasks we seem to need a bright spark techy guy for.
↪️The milk dispensing machine - so once the interior building and dust has settled we have a fancy new wrap to go on the front. We really wanted to modernise the payment system and it hasn't been for lack of trying...Kurt & our friend Mike Mudford have investigated every option but it looks like we are stuck with the original system there. No milk cards any more but a Paywave and/or cash system.
↘️ If you were an Arran Farm customer you'll remember the little vending machine that holds the empty bottles. We spied a modern glass bottle machine on Trade Me (it was a fancy thing with an elevator, Amy was imagining all sorts of things in there - eggs, veges, cheese etc... don't get ahead of yourself! Just focus on milk🥛for now) but anyway we were pipped at the post on Trade Me so we will stick with the old machine for now, which we have nicknamed "Little Monster". Not the most handsome machine around but he does work, even if you have to lodge a stick in his opening to get your bottle out 🤷
🔜We have a stack of glass bottles arriving soon but if course you can reuse your Arran Farm bottles. Did you know that glass bottles are sold out in NZ - we literally got the last stash. We are confident we will have enough to get us through to when our large pallet arrives at the end of October.

September sounds like a pretty good month to open don't you think?

05/08/2026

Has anyone had snow ❄️ at their house? We had a little flurry yesterday afternoon here (lots of hail, but I'm sure 🧐 there was a little flurry of snow for a short time as well). Not as much as 2011 though - some flashback photos to the time we had real snow in Bunnythorpe! I hope everyone stays warm and that animals and pets have extra shelter or blankets/jackets - our spoilt dog Bear is snuggled up by the fire. Our calves are warm in their shed, with full tummies of milk. We pop on a jacket on the youngest or smallest ones.

30/07/2026

Students from Zhejiang Gongshang University, China visited today. The first time that any of the students had been on a farm. Smoochy enjoyed the love and attention and the students walked through the paddock to see several mother cows with their baby calves. This is our last group now that calving time is getting busy. Our tours will start again in October. The Milk Barn news is that the exterior of the shop is almost done, fencing has started, the interior, plumbing, security and electrical all to happen, along with some work on the dispensing machines, concreting and liming of the driveway. Nearly there! 🎉🥛🐄

13/07/2026

Aww Smoochy 😍 our 15 year old pet cow.

John, our Director, made a new friend today when he took our international students on an adventure. Tune in next week to find out where and see more pics! 🐮
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www.etc.ac.nz

02/07/2026

A thought provoking article from Organic NZ.

https://organicnz.org.nz/magazine-articles/parable-of-the-paddock-edge/?fbclid=IwdGRjcASy-mZjbGNrBLL6AGV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHpjITmvWF_74KxKj8yuQwNmC9rSVd8JHXuGXE82hQKFE11gZRvQjPtw8OabC_aem__M9WrvQDD4ujHimdIlCLmg

At The Milk Barn, we believe great milk starts long before the milking shed.

It starts in living, healthy soil teeming with billions of microorganisms that nourish our pastures and support thriving ecosystems. That's why we choose to farm organically, without herbicides, pesticides, or unnecessary synthetic chemicals and fertiliser that can disrupt the delicate balance of nature.

Our cows graze on these nutrient-rich pastures and produce pure, farm-fresh A2 milk in its natural form to be enjoyed by many people who may find it gentler on their digestion.

🌱 Healthy soil
🐄 Healthy cows
🥛 Nourishing milk
💚 A healthier future

Parable of the paddock edge29 Jun 26/in Farming and Horticulture, Features, Free Online, Gardening, Health and Food, Magazine Articles, Our Environment We are the ones who live beside the paddock. No one asked us whether the new substance belonged here. A parable for our times by David McNeill We ho...

06/06/2026

31/05/2026

The end of the 25/26 farming season comes to a close 🎉

🥛🐄 Thanks Moo Cows!
You know, there are no silly questions on a farm tour, just good learning opportunities!

True story: the best question this year from an adult (who grew up in a huge overseas city and had never stepped foot on a farm) was...

"How do you tell the bulls from the cows?"

The cows are the girls. They're the ones rocking around the farm getting the job done! Milking, grazing and moooving around the farm at their leisure.

The bulls? Well, those boys have got a pretty sweet deal. Around here it's something like a roster of six months off and six weeks on.

So if you're ever unsure, just remember: the girls are busy earning their keep, while the boys are usually standing around looking important. Farm education complete. 🐄😂

This year has certainly been eventful and we are pretty sure 26/27 will be even bigger!

A question that pops up - why don't more farmers sell some of their milk direct?
Short answer: bureaucracy and costs 💰💰

Long answer: LOADS of bureaucracy, red tape and EVEN MORE costs and a heck of a learning curve. 💰🤯

But if farmers were scared of hard work and debt, we'd all be drinking water on our cereal. 🥣 So that leads us into exciting The Milk Barn, Palmy, NZ progress update 📋 A few extra grey hairs for Farmer "Builder" Gregory Goat during the first few council building inspections but all turned out well and with the amazing help of Jeremy Martin (thanks Jeremy!) on Saturday morning we now have the concrete floor down ✅

While building and farming we've also held a few tours over the last few months and we also welcomed Massey vet student Sophie Cu***ng onto the farm for a practical placement- it was great having you here Sophie!
⚡ Several 2nd & 3rd year Animal Science Massey classes
⚡Cloven Hoof Group 4th year Massey vet students
⚡ Kindai University Japan students
⚡ CEDA EDA Exchange
⚡Kiwiway Vacations bus group
⚡ Summerset Village
⚡ Friendship Force
⚡ MPI's Thailand delegation
⚡ Tranzit bus tour group - we can even say we have had a Hobbit to the farm! An actor on the original LOTR was part of the tour group 🎥
⚡Also a lovely German couple who were staying at Kaitahi - Chef's Table & Lodge. They were looking for a nearby farm tour so Jazz sent them our way.
⚡ NZ Galloway Society with a surprising visitor for Amy. Desrae Scown was my tutor/mentor teacher when I was a beginning teacher at Turuturu School in Hawera. It was so lovely to see Desrae after more than 20 years, she still looks the same!

09/05/2026

It's the farmers birthdays today! 🎂🎂 Yes it is a bit crazy that Greg & Amy share a birthday...and it often happens to fall on Mother's Day. Incredible three days doing loads of fun team activities as national finalists and being wined and dined around Rotorua. Yesterday morning we were told to wear sneakers - our Cow Manager team donned cow suits and we were let loose on an Amazing Race around Rotorua for the morning. Hilarity ensued, a few cows ending up in Lake Rotorua. The end of the three days culminated in the NZ Dairy Industry Awards dinner. Congratulations to all of the big winners on the night. Standing alongside the two other incredible finalists is something we’re so proud of - the care, innovation, and responsibility shown across the dairy industry is inspiring. Congrats to Tony Dodunski from Southland who took out the category - great meeting you👏 Also big congrats to Karl & Jess Woods, the Manawatu finalists placed 3rd in Sharemilker of the Year.

Now it’s time to swap the glitz and glam for gumboots again and get back to opening The Milk Barn. Concrete poured this week, we are so close to supplying nourishing A2 organic milk to you 💪🥛🚜