David Dymock, livestock technical advisor with MSD Animal Health, on how best to manage your herd at dry-off.
Now is the time for dairy farmers to develop a pasture ‘road map’ to ensure they have enough feed to take their farms through calving to the balance date in mid-September.
Jersey cows' higher pregnancy rates offer clear economic benefits by lowering replacement rates.
DNA parentage testing is more accessible to dairy farmers thanks to the launch last month of CRV Ambreed’s revitalised DNA parentage testing service.
Range in body condition score (BCS) is as important as average BCS at calving on New Zealand dairy farms, according to DairyNZ.
Drying off is the single most important event of the year for managing mastitis in your herd.
Water tests on Tatuanui farmer Johan Van Ras’ farm confirmed his worst fears: quality wasn’t up to scratch.
Food Conversion Efficiency is often misunderstood and overlooked, despite its role in profitability.
A Lincoln University Dairy Farm (LUDF) decision to use all AI and no bulls for mating has given “mixed” results and looks like it will be a short-lived experiment.
Despite New Zealand’s relatively benign climate lending itself well to pastoral farming, its soils can hide chronic mineral deficiencies.
A steady rise in the value of milk fat in recent seasons is due to strong consumer demand for milk fat products, says DairyNZ.
Liver damage caused by Facial Eczema severely impacts animal welfare and productivity, yet many farmers are not sufficiently supplementing their cows to protect against it.
The bonus of split calving is that you can match feed supply with feed demand throughout the year, says Neville Porteous of Te Arai Farms in lower Northland.
If you're selling or leasing bulls this spring, understand the risks and know the animal’s history of movement and health.
Johne's disease (JD) is a major production-limiting disease of farmed ruminants worldwide and, after CAE, it is the biggest animal health concern for goat farmers.
Farmers should stop treating agricultural pests as a problem, and instead realise they are a symptom of an unsustainable farming method, says a visiting expert in ‘regenerative’ agriculture.
Filling the vat with the best milk you can produce is a financial advantage, says milking liner maker Skellerup.
Dairy farmers are using a range of tactics to keep their cows and farms safe from Mycoplasma bovis this mating season.
DairyNZ has redeveloped and updated a reproduction knowledge course known as the InCalf training programme.
Every mating season, veterinarians are called to fresh calved heifers presenting with unexplained severe forelimb lameness. This could be down to copper deficiency.
The ability of dairy cows to use feed to produce higher quantities of milk is a genetics issue, says the world’s largest dairy farmer cooperative.
Dairy farmers worldwide are being urged to prepare now for a future with a smaller herd of higher producing cows, says the general manager of World Wide Sires New Zealand, Hank Lina.
West Coast farmer Andrew Stewart believes the key to animal traceability is to keep your National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) account regularly updated.
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