Dairy NZ

DairyNZ investment in extension aims to increase the rate and effectiveness of on-farm adoption. This will be achieved through measurement and refinement of Extension Strategy and approach; specialist groups, field days, conferences and Farm Systems groups; partnerships with rural professionals; building regional farmer networks/demonstrations; adoption capability development; written/electronic media and DairyNZ's natural disaster response.

DairyNZ is partner in research and farm demonstration operations throughout New Zealand where tools and practices are adapted to unique local conditions; including Southland Demonstration Farm, Bay of Plenty Focus on Dairying and the South Waikato Development Trust DairyPush.

The demonstration farms (LUDF, Southland, BOP Focus Farm and Westland) have successfully been using a suite of tools (the farm walk, feed wedge, feed budgeting and the spring rotation planner) to increase pasture harvested. The aim of this project is to identify how these tools can be used by farmers to help them make better grazing management decisions.
This project is jointly funded with the Feed Adoption programme of work, linking with project FD615.

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DairyNZ's prototype farms aim to determine the boundaries to sustainable and productive dairy farming by achieving targets anticipated as requirements for the dairy industry in 10 years' time.
Dairy farmers will have new options to increase productivity, environmental efficiency and automation.
The prototype farms funded under this project include:

 - The Super Productivity Farm, which aims to produce 1750 kgMS/ha from home grown feed.
 - The Tight Nitrogen Farm, which aims to maintain current production of 1200 kgMS/ha whilereducing nitrate leaching by 50 per cent.

Labour and technology

SY704

This research proposes to build the technology platform, knowledge and expertise necessary to provide farmers and researchers with more advanced tools to optimise farm production, mitigate labour constraints, improve animal welfare and broaden lifestyle choices. This will be achieved by developing the farm systems to use automation technology to reduce manual labour and information technology to increase output via better decision-making.

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The outcome of this project is a paddock scale pasture growth model and database that will enable farmers to fill gaps between physical measurements of pasture cover. Both reduce the requirement for physical measurement and identifying poor performing paddocks for renovation.

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Forage value for increased
dairy productivity

The industry has been centred on perennial ryegrass white - clover-based pastures but further productivity increases will likely require diversification of the forage base to increase dry matter production, better meet cows' nutritional demands and improve environmental sustainability. The project focused on productivity gains through using alternative legume forages to improve forage quality, particularly in late summer-autumn. The development of a Forage Value Index started this year.

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This project seeks to increase the understanding of on-farm business and financial risk in the dairy industry, which will lead to the development of processes and tools to manage risk.

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The aim of this project was to evaluate the Pasture Plus farmer groups which DairyNZ developed and delivers across New Zealand. The evaluation is to ensure dairy industry investment in extension is having a positive benefit for the farmer involved. The findings will also inform continuous improvement of extension.

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Adoption research is able to inform improved field extension in the dairy industry. This project aimed to scope and commission practical adoption research which would lead to improved planning and delivery of extension.

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The DairyNZ Whole Farm Model (WFM) was used to support projects including evaluation of:
 - The environmental and economic consequences of implementing different nitrogen taxes.
 - Physical causes and economic consequences of reproductive performance on Waikato dairy farms.
 - N leaching patterns and consequences for management.

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DairyNZ Ltd

This project was part of the larger Farm Business Programme of Work. The main aim was to improve the strategic and financial capability of New Zealand dairy farmers through a mix of farmer-focused workshops and seminars and general industry communications.

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The aim of this project is to create a new generation of dairy industry professionals, by developing skills in research, development and extension, to drive the sustainability and productivity of New Zealand dairy farming.

This project aims to produce innovative and robust economic reports on topics of interest to dairy farmers and to store the supporting data in an electronic database for future analysis.
New measures for productivity growth were developed and the team supported studies including Australian-NZ systems comparison and Economic Risk Analysis.

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This project has been underway at Massey University for the last seven years, undertaking comparisons between certified organic and conventional systems. The research team has shown the feasibility of conversion to organic systems and identified and managed many of the issues facing the organic farmer.

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