New Dairy Research Unlocks Better Fertility and Herd Performance in NZ
New research is helping farmers better understand and manage fertility, with clearer tools and measures to support more robust, productive herds.
Over 300 farmers and rural professionals have gathered in Hamilton for the first DairyNZ Farmers Forum for this year.
Opening the event, DairyNZ chair Tracy Brown says at events like the Farmers Forum in New Zealand, dairy farmers have charted their own path forward.
“Today we stand here, many of us, as dairy farmers, who are also businesspeople, soil scientists, agronomists, technologists, economists, geneticists, vets. We know we must keep learning but also rely on prior knowledge.
“We must do our analysis but also trust our gut.”
Brown says throughout the ages New Zealand dairy farmers have quietly built not just enormous skillsets to optimise their individual operation, but they have built industry-good assets that everyone relies upon today.
“The highest standards of animal welfare in the world are an asset to us all, as are the strides we make each day in environmental performance while maintaining business viability.
“We operate systems that are among the most emissions-efficient on the globe.
“The lowest cost producers of dairy because we are pasture fed – with a grass to glass efficiency story like no other.
“We have always created and adopted new tools, new solutions, had new ideas and we have always ensured this all works in the paddock, not just on paper.”
Two more Farmers Forum will be held in the South Island.
New research suggests sheep and beef farmers could improve both profitability and emissions efficiency by increasing lamb weaning weights, with only marginal changes in total greenhouse gas emissions.
With six months until the election, Federated Farmers says the Government is running out of time to deliver its long-promised reform to the country's freshwater system.
Herd improvement company LIC has entered the Indonesian market.
Two forestry companies have been sentenced for road failures that led to the death of Coromandel truck driver Greg Stevens.
The situation in the Middle East has been a major influence on markets over recent months and the market for key farm inputs continues to move at pace, with pricing and availability shifting quickly across several key products, according to a major stockfood seller.
Rural Women New Zealand (RWNZ) has signed on to a formal complaint filed with the United Nations requesting an investigation into whether the government's changes to New Zealand's pay equity laws amounts to systemic discrimination against women.
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