Mila’s and Bruneck Dairy
The members of our cooperative are owners, suppliers and customers of Mila and Senni – all at the same time. Approximately 3,800 of the 5,700 dairies in South Tyrol are members of Milkon, making it the largest dairy company in the region. In 2007, our farms delivered 225 out of the 366 million total litres of milk produced in South Tyrol. Every day, Mila’s and Senni's then milk tankers collect about 620,000 litres of milk, together with twelve independent tankers. An additional twenty-two small trucks take on the task of collecting milk from remote villages and alpine farms and bringing it into town. Milk delivery per member per year amounts to an average to 60,700 litres, which corresponds to a gross profit distribution of about 30,000 euro. Milkon pays out a total of about 100,000,000 euro per year to its member dairies.
Mila and Senni great value upon the quality of its raw milk. Seventy-five percent of its milk conforms to Class I quality standards. A direct correlation between the milk quality and the amount Milkon pays out motivates the members to make ongoing improvements in their animals’ health and husbandry conditions. Whenever Milkon detects a deviation in milk quality, the company alerts the producers immediately so that they can fix the problem right away and prevent any further problems.
A typical peasant member dairy maintains an average of twelve cows. This small-scale structure offers numerous advantages for milk quality and is extremely beneficial to the livestock. At the same time, it forces about eighty percent of our farmers to pursue a side job. This can place a burden on the whole family that is not only physical, but also psychological. In response to this problem, Milkon provides direct counselling to its member farmers; in addition, the South Tyrol Dairy Organization provides support through its head counsellor. By cultivating the region’s fields, pastures and alpine meadows, the peasant population contributes significantly to the protection of South Tyrol’s landscapes and to the preservation of its traditional cultural heritage. This commitment forms the foundation for sustainable tourism that functions efficiently; it also helps stabilise the entirety of South Tyrol’s alpine and sub-alpine ecosystem.
