Black field cricket is a major pasture pest in regions such as Northland and Auckland, predominantly affecting clay soils that crack in dry summers. These crickets feed on pasture grasses at night and hide in soil cracks during the day.

Establishing a successful sharemilking or contract milking relationship requires thorough due diligence. Understand your own situation, including goals, values, financial standing, and farming practices.

Renewing pasture is crucial for maintaining healthy dairy farms, and there are four primary methods to consider: cultivation, spray-drilling, undersowing, and oversowing.

Managing high-quality pasture during feed surplus periods is a crucial skill in pasture management. This page explains that pasture surplus often develops in spring, which if unmanaged, can lead to low-quality pasture affecting milk production.

The nature and scale of many dairy farming businesses is changing and there are many self-employed business opportunities available for individuals and partnerships.

Keeping your milking system clean and safe is an essential part of maintaining your farm successfully. The cleanliness of the milking system and the dairy is critical, so understanding your systems and the processes to cleaning is very important.

Building a robust track for dairy farming requires a comprehensive understanding of construction principles and potential problems. This page guides you through the basic steps for constructing a sturdy and efficient track for cow traffic.

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.

Trace elements, including cobalt, copper, iodine, selenium, and zinc, play a vital role in dairy cow nutrition. Your cows need these elements for functions like growth, reproduction, and milk production.

The page focuses on the importance of well-designed and maintained intersections between the yard and track on a dairy farm.

Copper deficiency in cattle, common during winter/early spring or in fast-growing calves over six months, can lead to issues like weight loss, reduced milk yields, reproductive problems, and anaemia in cows.

Teat spraying is a method to prevent mastitis in cows, focusing on the correct coverage and preparation of the teat spray solution. If not done properly, it can be wasteful and ineffective.

Pregnancy testing is key in managing your dairy herd. It tells you which cows are pregnant and their conception time, which helps you to plan effectively.

Magnesium supplements can help prevent metabolic issues in your cows, such as milk fever and grass staggers. Start giving these supplements two to three weeks before calving and continue until spring pasture growth slows.

Giant buttercup, one of 14 weedy Ranunculus species in New Zealand, is harmful to dairy pastures because cows find it distasteful due to its toxin, protoanemonin. This weed spreads across dairy farms, damaging pasture quality.

Effluent storage on your farm is crucial and requires careful planning and design. With a well-designed storage system, you'll experience peace of mind, improved irrigation, efficient use of nutrients and water, and enhanced environmental protection.

Body Condition Scoring (BCS) is a method to monitor dairy cow health and productivity. This page provides a guide on how to carry out BCS, highlighting specific body parts to check, including the backbone, ribs, hip bones, and more.

Establishing a healthy pasture requires attention to several factors: sowing date, seedbed preparation, sowing depth, and perennial ryegrass sowing rate.

Understanding calf digestion and rumen development is crucial for successful growth and future production.