‘We are in a much better position, going forward,’ says Steve Murphy, Fonterra’s General Manager of Milk Supply, as the cooperative manages the fallout from the break in the Maui gas line in Taranaki earlier in the week.

Mr Murphy told Country99TV that Fonterra’s farmers had been dumping up to 30 million litres of milk a day but by Friday morning that figure was about 5 million litres, and was likely to remain that way for the next few days.

Mr Murphy said dumping milk was an incredibly painful process for farmers. One frustrated Waikato dairy farmer Country99TV spoke to said that he hadn't even felt like milking his cows, only to take it straight out into the paddock..

On Tuesday, Fonterra was forced to shut down 15 of its North Island processing plants, but by Friday morning, most were back to normal, with the exception of Te Rapa in the Waikato, which was running at half capacity, and the Tip Top plants at Morrinsville, and in South Auckland.

Meanwhile, farmers with uncollected milk are dumping it in effluent storage ponds, spraying it onto pasture, feeding it to calves and giving it away to pig farmers.

In spite of warnings to try and keep spiled milk out of waterways, Northland Regional Council reports that some dumped milk has reached a stream in the Maungaturoto area, after a stormwater diverter in an effluent pond was set incorrectly.

And Waikato Regional Council has reported that four incidents of milk entering waterways are being investigated.

Bay of Plenty has reported no incidents so far.