A revision of the industry-led Dairy Herd Testing Standard is helping to keep pace with national farming practice changes and technological advances, to better support genetic gain in New Zealand.
Herd test standards in New Zealand provide farmers with reliable data on milk production, animal health, and genetic traits. Around 80 percent of New Zealand’s dairy cows (representing 3.79 million cows) undergo herd testing each year.
The data also feeds into national genetic evaluations, helping identify top-performing animals for breeding and advancing herd genetics across the industry.
DairyNZ NZAEL manager, Andrew Fear, says that stakeholders across the sector agreed that while the standard, last updated in 2015, still provided good guidance for herd testers, it needed to be updated to reflect new technology and the need for high-quality data to be used in Animal Evaluation.
“Improving the rate of genetic gain in New Zealand is essential so that our dairy sector can remain internationally competitive and increase farm profitability and sustainability,” says Andrew.
“The update includes changes to animal recording and dairy production data, with dairy farmers now able to provide information on the management systems across the different mobs on their farm. In turn, this powers a more accurate animal evaluation”.
“Farmers will then have access to better information to support their on-farm decision making, as it aligns better to their specific management systems, including the selection of future sires for mating purposes.”
The Standard update has been prepared by a committee of 21 industry representatives, who worked to ensure the document reflects the interests of New Zealand dairy farmers, Certified Herd Testers and wider related industry organisations. The changes also align with the recommendations from the Industry Working Group report to improve phenotypic records.
“It is crucial that we continue to take key actions and make improvements to drive faster rates of genetic gain in New Zealand’s dairy herd,” says Andrew.
“Updating this standard is another step in the right direction to support this overarching goal.”
The updates will be implemented over a three-year period by certified herd testers and herd test record providers.
Media contact
Celine Walters-Gray
Media Specialist
p 027 247 9876
e Celine.Walters@dairynz.co.nz