Port Chalmers dairy farmer Merrall MacNeille has been overwhelmed by support since the Ministry for Primary Industries ordered him to stop selling milk.
Early last month Mr MacNeille and his wife Alex were ordered to stop selling raw milk after a tuberculosis-positive heifer was discovered on their property above Careys Bay.
"I didn't really see a way out of it. I thought I was going to have to slaughter all my cows,'' Mr MacNeille said.
An informal group called Friends of the Holy Cow got together to support the couple and has raised more than $15,000 via a Givealittle page.
Those funds will help the couple keep the cows fed and healthy through winter while they install equipment that will allow them to sell milk again.
Mr MacNeille is in the process of installing a pasteurising vat and a processing room.
"I've got all the pieces here, I dropped it temporarily because I'm filling out paperwork for a variety of different agencies at the moment - MPI, the DCC,'' Mr MacNeille said.
"A lot of things have to come together at the same time.
"We are working on the processing room but some of the pieces for that won't be here for a few weeks.''
He hoped to have everything ready by the end of August or early September, when calving begins.
"I have to get it all together and then I have to have third party inspections and obtain a licence to sell from MPI - there are still some hoops to get through.''
The support had been "perfectly wonderful'', he said.
"I didn't expect it and it has kept me going, that's for sure. It has been completely crucial.''
