Herd about the 110% milk solids/liveweight goal?
Methven farmers Earl and Melissa McSweeney are breeders of one of LIC’s best KiwiCross sires, 523092 Plateau Dembe, son of popular 21-code bull Baldricks Spectacular.
OSPRI and the Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC) are urging farmers to play their part in improving animal traceability at a critical time on farm.
As the management agency for the National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) system, OSPRI has been working closely with LIC to ensure livestock data recorded in its livestock management system MINDA LIVE, is more easily transferable and can be captured real-time in NAIT.
“The recent upgrades mean a seamless transfer of livestock movements between both systems within two hours instead of just once daily," says OSPRI chief executive Steve Stuart.
“Farmers will also now receive an email notification confirming that the information about their livestock and movements has been successfully transferred into NAIT.”
OSPRI is delighted to see farmers are increasing their NAIT engagement with 77% of animals now being registered in the system prior to moving off farm.
“We expect the recent work undertaken between OSPRI and LIC will provide further incentives for farmers to meet their NAIT obligations,” says Stuart.
“The upgrade provides more certainty for farmers registering animals and recording livestock movements in MINDA LIVE and the transfer into NAIT. It also means the data held in NAIT will be more current and accurate and this supports disease management and national biosecurity.”
MINDA is used by over 90% of New Zealand’s dairy farmers, helping inform them on management of herds, individual animals and NAIT obligations.
LIC chief executive Wayne McNee says the latest enhancements regarding NAIT compliance for farmers are part of a two-year “MINDA improvement roadmap” designed with the seasonal needs of farmers in mind to keep improving the MINDA experience.
“This is a further investment by LIC to enable easier and more accurate NAIT compliance for farmers. Farmers are able to make updates to various areas of NAIT recording including calving. These updates will make it clear what NAIT events are being generated and ensure parity between the NAIT and MINDA databases.”
“Our MINDA LIVE and App users can have confidence that all the animal registrations and livestock movements are transferred into NAIT in a timely manner, enabling them to stay on top of their NAIT accounts.”
OSPRI meanwhile is committed to improving the farmer experience with the NAIT system and is working with other third-party and information providers.
Among the regular exhibitors at last month’s South Island Agricultural Field Days, the one that arguably takes the most intensive preparation every time is the PGG Wrightson Seeds site.
Two high producing Canterbury dairy farmers are moving to blended stockfeed supplements fed in-shed for a number of reasons, not the least of which is to boost protein levels, which they can’t achieve through pasture under the region’s nitrogen limit of 190kg/ha.
Buoyed by strong forecasts for milk prices and a renewed demand for dairy assets, the South Island rural real estate market has begun the year with positive momentum, according to Colliers.
The six young cattle breeders participating in the inaugural Holstein Friesian NZ young breeder development programme have completed their first event of the year.
New Zealand feed producers are being encouraged to boost staff training to maintain efficiency and product quality.
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