Bay of Plenty Profitability

Bay of Plenty Focus on Dairying is an initiative led by Bay of Plenty dairy farmers to explore ways for local farmers to make their farms more profitable, sustainable and satisfying.

The BOP Focus on Dairying project is a joint initiative between the farming community and rural leaders, with DairyNZ as the principal funder.

A farmer-led committee comprising farmers and rural professionals from the area runs the project. The committee focuses on topics ranging from farm profitability to management options such as managing summer dry challenges and working towards lessening our environmental impact.

BOP Focus on Dairying initiatives include:

• recording seasonal progress of four monitor farms (Opotoki, Awakeri, Galatea and Pongakawa)
• promoting/driving on-farm research in the region
• providing farmers with local climate and pasture growth data relevant to their district.

Bay of Plenty monitor farms

The farms that provide data are located in Opotoki, Awakeri, Galatea and Pongakawa.

Farmers can access data from these farms in their area by signing up for regular Bay of Plenty Monitor Farm emails.

The emails provide updates on pasture growth rates, average pasture cover, rotation length, feed intake and type of feed, feed quality analysis, N use, rainfall, soil temperature, milk production figures and number of cows in milk.

To sign up for regular updates visit the subscriptions page.

How to dry off and minimise mastitis - Scott McDougall

Scott McDougall, world-leading researcher in mastitis and herd reproduction presented at the BOP Focus on dairy field day, 31 March 2022 on how to dry off successfully. To see Scott’s presentation, click on the links below.