About the Step Change project

Improve profit AND reduce footprint? DairyNZ's Step Change project is helping help farmers answer this question and show ways they can reduce GHG, improve water quality, and improve profitability.

Project overview

This five-year project aims to ensure that by 2025 farm businesses are profitable, are on track to meet 10% methane target in 2030, are working toward meeting regulated N limits, and farmers have confidence their business and future.

Why are we doing this?

To protect our future by being the best-positioned farmers in the world to supply the growing demand for natural and sustainably produced dairy nutrition.

Key strategies

Help farmers consider what their business looks like in the future so their initiatives today are consistent with their long term goals and the environment that they will be operating in
Define measures to help farmers establish where there is the opportunity for them to improve environmental and financial performance, and to track progress
Create the pathways for building capability with DairyNZ staff, farmers, and partners in these focus areas.
Share the New Zealand dairy farmer story of why they are the world's most sustainable dairy farmers through the Rise and Shine campaign to grow farmer and public understanding of what makes New Zealand dairy special.

Approach

There is no one size that fits all, so the approach is to ensure that individual farmer needs are understood and catered for in developing change initiatives. Project activity with both field staff and farmers is to be integrated with existing work to build greater awareness and new behaviours around improving feed management and other mitigations. We will be collaborating with farmers and industry partners to ensure consistent messaging that is practical, relevant and evidence-based.