Clearwater Organic Dairy

A vertically integrated organic dairy business – from the farm milk through to yoghurt.

Clearwater Organic Dairy Ltd was founded by Bryan and Jackie Clearwater, and Catherine and Ad Sintenie. The partnership combines the Clearwater’s experience of the organic farming with Ad’s 25 years of food processing.

Bryan and Jackie Clearwater, the owners of Peelview farm, started off with a conventional sheep and beef farm in the 1990s. The farm was fully certified over 10 years ago.

Both Bryan and Jackie are actively involved in the everyday running of the farm, milking cows all year round.

Catherine and Ad (Ard) Sintenie live just down the road. They immigrated to New Zealand in 1986 after falling in love with the country and each other.

Ad is the yoghurt maker, a skill he learned over 25 years ago when training and working in the dairy industry in Holland and doing a stint, working for a farm-dairy in the Lakes District in the UK. Before he joined up with the Clearwaters he was a factory manager for Barkers Foods.

The property is called “Peelview Farm”. The name may have something to do with the fact that Mt Peel is more or less the farm’s back yard. It is close to the Winterslow Range.

Bryan and Jackie converted the farm into an organic dairy farm after they purchased it as a sheep and beef farm in 1999.

The property is 110ha effective, milking 45 cows over the winter and 250 at the peak. There’s also an organic run-off nearby.

The herd is moving towards A2. Bryan and Jackie got interested in A2 genetics a while ago and had their herd tested. They are working towards having a fully A2 herd but recognize that is a long haul job.

They use no conventional fertilizer but are keen on Agrisea.

The dairy is a 28 bale rotary dairy shed which was brought on to the farm. Milking through the winter was a challenge.

The Clearwater’s are committed to the organic principals of farming, producing certified organic milk.

Bryan Clearwater says the benefits of the “soil-foodweb science” are becoming increasingly noticeable, through animal health, farm yields and milk quality.

He says soil-foodweb science is about comprehensive nutrition to soil fungi and bacteria, creating better water holding capacity, carbon sequestration and enhanced soil health.

The couple have worked on restoring a stream in its natural bed and have done extensive planting of native vegetation around the stream and on the farm. They see these as examples of ways in which they are reducing the impact of our farming activities and work towards enhancing the environment. As the native planting in the fenced off areas is gaining, there is a noticeable and ongoing increase in bird life and biodiversity on the farm.

Bryan uses a refractometer to measure pasture brix. He is also very big on compost and has quite a large composting area.

The philosophy is that good and wholesome products can only be produced from the best possible raw materials.

Milk is used as it comes from the cow, they don’t remove anything and they don’t add anything, other than the culture blend. They take the milk from the cows – no homogenising. The milk naturally has a high fat content. Ad says you have to start with good milk to start off with.

The yoghurt factory is right next to the dairy shed. It is two shipping containers. It is all stainless steel. It has positive air pressure. They use a 80litre batch pasteuriser. It can cope with 1000 litres a day.

They make the yoghurt in 335 gram and 740 gram pots for retail sale .They also make yoghurt in larger containers for commercial users. They sell at the Geraldine farmers markets.

They use their own truck for distribution – so they have control of the whole supply chain.

The use a process called pot-setting with their yoghurt. Ad says many yoghurts are mass produced using gelatine, starches, food acids, milk powder or evaporation. But Clearwater’s Yoghurt is different. It is set in the actual pot they sell and therefore does not need these additives or processing aids.