Genetics, Efficiency and Performance: How the Burgesses are raising the bar at Te Poi
Bill and Michelle Burgess had an eye-opening realisation when they produced the same with fewer cows.
Emissions by dairy cattle decreased according to the latest NZ Greenhouse Gas Inventory report.
It shows that between 2022 and 2023, total emissions from agriculture decreased 2.2% which included a 1.6% drop in dairy cattle emissions due to a fall in dairy cow numbers.
This is part of a trend that has seen methane emissions from dairy cattle decrease by 4.11% since 2017. DairyNZ statistics show a 3.4% decrease in cow numbers - from 4.84 million in the 2021/22 season to 4.67 million in the 2022/23 season.
Average milk production per cow increased over this same period by 1.8%, up to 393kgMS from 386kgMS.
