Thriving biodiversity supports dairy farming by enhancing water quality, reducing soil erosion, and providing habitats for native species.

When it comes to improving water quality, what does best practice look like? Join us as we talk to DairyNZ Senior Water Quality Scientist Dr Katrina Macintosh and AgResearch Senior Scientist Dr Richard Muirhead.

Breeding Worth (BW) is an index that ranks cows and bulls on their ability to breed profitable, efficient replacements. This page explains how BW is used to create herds resilient to changes and disease, therefore increasing farm profits.

An intro into the roles on a dairy farm, where to find the right role for you, understanding what you need in a job and how you can progress your career in dairy.

A breeding value is an estimate of an animal's genetic merit for a particular trait. Using breeding values to select cows and bulls to be the parents of the next generation is the most effective way to achieve genetic improvement.

Cow performance measurement lets you identify the most and least productive cows in your herd.

Effective cow data recording and performance measurement on your farm can make the difference in breeding decisions.

This page covers the concept of a base cow. Breeding Worth (BW) and Breeding Values (BV) are presented as the difference between an animal’s genetic merit and the average genetic merit of the 'base cows’.

This page covers the concept of genetic reliability, highlighting the confidence in an animal's breeding value and worth.

Senior Freshwater Ecologist

Biometrician

Having more productive dairy workplaces can save hours, shorten the working day, and create more attractive workplaces. In this episode, we share the findings of two recent studies on workplace productivity and farm tech adoption.

Odour from farm dairy effluent is increasingly an issue as herd sizes grow and urban boundaries get closer to operating farms. If the regional council receives a complaint about an odour, they will come out to the farm and assess the situation.

What’s the best way to manage internal parasites in young dairy stock? Find out how worms limit production in calves, when to start drenching, how to choose the right drench, and why we need to focus on management factors other than drench.

What do saloon doors and exosuits have to do with reducing injuries on dairy farms? They’re among a range of practical ideas DairyNZ is trialling to help farmers avoid sprains and strains, particularly around calving time.

Discover the benefits of flexible milking for dairy farms - DairyNZ provides insights on milking intervals beyond OAD and TAD.

Backing gates are tools used in the dairy yard to improve cow flow into the dairy, leading to more efficient milking. Moving the gate little and often takes up space in the yard, while still providing cows enough room is important.

Accurate drafting of cows into groups is a crucial part of managing a herd on dairy farms, and it becomes even more essential as herd sizes grow. This page discusses the importance of automated drafting systems in New Zealand dairy farming.

Here you’ll learn about ways to make your herringbone dairy more effective, often for little or no extra cost. The swing-over herringbone is the most common dairy type in New Zealand, used on 69% of dairy farms.