Safeguarding Nature

Pasture Fed

Our farmers know how important a high quality diet is to goats. DGC goats thrive on locally grown, on-farm forages such as grasses, clover, lucerne, hay, silage or pasture plants. If short in supply they are sometimes also brought in from other trusted farms within New Zealand.

Milking goats are also given supplementary feeds which are high in protein and energy. One of DGC’s policies is that farmers use only New Zealand or Australian sourced supplementary feeds that are fit for the purpose of producing high quality and safe goat infant formula.

Farming system

Ranging from housed through to on-pasture, DGC farmers have a variety of different farming systems. However, the predominant system is to house goats in open-sided, free-stall barns and feed them on forages brought directly to them. They enjoy natural lighting and fresh air and can move freely through the shelter or barn. Another popular system is on-pasture grazing where the goats are taken to their feed.

Animal welfare

New Zealand has a strict Code of Welfare for Goats. It specifies what is considered to be optimal animal welfare and how this may be achieved for goats farmed under New Zealand conditions. DGC farms are all required to follow the New Zealand Code of Welfare for Goats and DGC’s own Code of Farm Practice.

DGC Code of Farm Practice

The DGC Code of Farm Practice has some expectations that are over and above the minimum requirements expected by the NZ government. Our code is used to set world class benchmarks for milk harvesting, animal welfare, environmental issues, farm dairy presentation and milk quality consistent with infant formula products. It encourages best farming practices for production of goat milk that is fit for the purpose of producing high quality and safe infant formula.

Written by an external auditing company with input from farming experts, DGC staff and dairy goat farmers, the DGC Code of Farm Practice also captures practical knowledge and experience with milking goats.

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Can Filling

The DGC can filling facilities are world class. On any day at DGC we can manufacture over 150,000 cans and fill over 90,000 cans. These are then sent to our warehousing and distribution facility where they await final safety tests before being released for export worldwide.

Blending

Our state of the art blending plant enables us to add the additional nutrients required to meet regulatory and specific product requirements where necessary.

Co-operation

We are a co-operative, owned by the farmers who supply goat milk. We believe in the enduring value of the co-operative model and our objective is to grow the wealth and security of our farmer shareholders, while at the same time providing consumers with a world-leading premium quality product.

Co-operative is also a word we use to describe our business style, which is built around sustainable and long-term relationships with our partners.

We believe that goat milk is the best base from which to make infant formula. It is not the cheapest, or the most commonly available, but we do believe it is the best.

We take our responsibility seriously to deliver safe and effective nutrition to infants and young children all around the world, and to deliver brands and products that parents trust.

Purpose built manufacturing

The DGC plant is purpose-built solely to be a world class facility for manufacturing goat milk formula. Combined with our cooperative farm model, we are able to control the entire process from milking to distribution. So milk that comes into the plant leaves as a completed product.

The result is a safer, cleaner manufacturing process with no third parties.