IT STARTED in a garage in Ashburton some 30 years ago.

A recent study has found using the plant hormone gibberellic acid as an alternative to nitrogen fertiliser in late winter and early spring can significantly improve pasture growth at a time when dairy farmers start grazing stock more heavily after calving.

DairyNZ subsidiary NZ Animal Evaluation Ltd (NZAEL), has reached agreement with LIC and CRV Ambreed for a standardised presentation of parentage and daughter based estimates as well as genomic based estimates for bulls this autumn.

A specially calendared Grown Cattle Fair brought out the cattle and the buyers with nearly 650 of the bovine attendees and a good number of Northern buyers on the bench.  

Store lamb numbers eased back at Temuka this week but the prices headed in the other direction as the lambs coming forward were much heavier than last Monday.

There has been a decent lift in export lamb prices on the spot market as procurement competition lifts up a notch. Some companies lifted prices by 15c/kg this during last week. 

The 11 finalists competing for the 2013 New Zealand Farm Manager of the Year title are split between contract milkers and farm managers – as well as age, experience, and farm size.

Registrations of interest have opened for DairyNZ's popular Progression Groups taking place nationwide in 2013.

Use of DNA sequence technology by farmer cooperative Livestock Improvement (LIC) has led to the discovery of a recessive small calf gene - opening the door to managing small calf syndrome out of the dairy industry.

The Dairy Women's Network will develop the country's first leadership programme specifically for women working in the dairy industry using a $180,000 grant from the Ministry of Primary Industries' Sustainable Farming Fund.

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