YOUNG STOCK represent the future of a dairy farm. They are also a significant investment with the cost of rearing a heifer to her first lactation estimated to be $1200. Optimal weight gain and health during rearing are essential to ensure the newly calved heifer produces milk to her genetic potential, gets back in calf quickly and has good health so she stays in the herd long-term. 

When funding was pulled from wild animal control in the late 1970s, many of New Zealand's cattle and deer herds fell foul of TB, says Animal Health Board chairman John Dalziell, in the introduction to the board's Making TB History. This extract from the booklet tells one farmer's story.

Lincoln University appears to be running the gauntlet of a green-lobby backlash by awarding an international alumni medal to a palm oil company chief executive.