The northern approach to the Wanganui River bridge was washed away resulting in an 18-hour round trip for milk collection.
Roughly 400,000 litres of milk was disposed of but Westland said it had expected to lose a lot more.
“We had a good contingency plan in place and were able to get some help from other dairy companies and contractor tanker companies which meant we were able to actually get a lot more tankers in which made a huge difference to us,” a Westland Milk Products spokesman said.
“We had 55 extra road tankers helping us get milk to various processing plants and that is a lot of extra tankers on the road.”
They were shifting up to 600,000 litres a day to clear the backlog and prevent as much milk as possible from being dumped.
“We had to station drivers at various places in Southland and the West Coast so they could take over shifts and keep the trucks going,” he said.
Westland says it is highly appreciative of other dairy companies that helped.
That meant Westland’s drivers would not have to travel great distances and milk could be transported to and processed at other dairy company factories in Edendale and Invercargill.
“Everybody co-operated. We were loaned vehicles by DoC. It is a good example of the West Coast community really belting in to help,” he said.
