FONTERRA’S RECENT decision to cut local milk prices was welcomed by various consumer groups and others – including many self-serving politicians – all around New Zealand.

THE OPERATOR OF New Zealand's first independent product development spray dryer says interest is high among dairy industry players.

FOUR WEST Coast students have won university scholarships from Westland Milk Products.

MUCH OF my work in recent months has been on strategic reviews. These assignments involve business health checks to benchmark performance against best practice for key areas such as feed strategies, people management, budgeting and reporting. They take me into privileged territory as I compare the standards being achieved by farming operations against what I know is possible. The benefit is a business plan that is clear about new opportunity and identifies factors that risk holding the business back.

SHED SAFETY improvements to artificial breeding (AB) facilities on farm have a direct effect on farm productivity and profitability. By reducing injuries productivity is up, idle time reduced, the cost of replacement labour eliminated, and medical treatment and rehabilitation expenses avoided.

Andrew Hoggard leads a busy life as Federated Farmers Manawatu/Rangitikei provincial president. He is also the national vice president of the Feds dairy section, manages a big dairy farm and has a young family. How does he do all this?

MAIZE SILAGE harvest will start in a few weeks. It is a busy and stressful time for contractors and a little forward planning will help make their job easier. Key things to consider are booking in your contractor, bunker or stack preparation and ordering silage making supplies.

AS THE long, hot days of summer roll through, it's even more important to keep checking the levels in effluent ponds, says DairyNZ. Let them get too full and when the weather turns and the autumn rains set in, overfull effluent ponds can cause all sorts of problems.

IT IS a high, dry climate to be dairying in at 400m above sea level north of Omarama, one that may appear to present some climatic challenges, but also some animal health bonuses.

GETTING MORE cows in calf is the biggest improvement you can make to your dairy business.

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