Employee Survey insights

Since 2019, we’ve asked dairy employees across New Zealand about their experiences of work, leadership, hours, wellbeing and development.

These insights help employers understand what attracts people to dairy, what keeps them there - and what leads them to leave.

The survey tells us employers’ matter most

Employers have the biggest influence on whether people join, enjoy and stay in dairy. Day-to-day leadership and workplace practices matter more than anything else – including pay, training, rosters, and clear career pathways. Supporting people well early in their careers and modernising the way we design jobs, are key to building a resilient dairy workforce for the future.

In 2025, 80–86% of respondents intended to stay in dairy, across all roles and farm structures. However, experiences differed by career stage:

• Younger employees were highly positive about the sector, but less positive about their individual farm experience - highlighting the importance of early career leadership, housing, supportive rosters, and training.
• Mid-career employees showed stable advocacy for both their farm and the sector.
• Older employees tended to be more loyal to their employer than the sector overall.

The most common reasons employees leave dairy are:

• Insufficient pay (31%)
• Poor relationships with management or team members (28%)
• Lack of time off (15%)

Respondents experiencing these issues report strong disengagement and are unlikely to recommend their farm or the dairy sector. These are largely preventable issues, linked to leadership, team culture, workload planning, and fair remuneration.

Hours of work and rosters

Working hours remain a major challenge for retention and wellbeing.

• Mid-lactation working hours average around 48 hours per week.
• During calving, this rises to 53–54 hours.
• Around half of the respondents are on low-recovery rosters (six or fewer days off in a 28-day period). This can be more common in senior roles and is often linked with poorer experiences of dairy sector work.

Practices that help reduce excessive hours include:

• Limiting consecutive long working days during peak period.
• Planning and protecting scheduled relief.
• Using predictable rosters with clear recovery time.
• Protecting the dried-off period as a genuine rest window.
• Being transparent about time-off systems.

Wellbeing

Wellbeing is shaped mostly by day-to-day leadership and feeling valued.

Along with good quality housing, how work is organised also matters - including hours, rosters how the team works together, and safe working conditions.

Across all roles, the top wellbeing drivers were:

• Having a good boss.
• Feeling valued.

Together, these made up nearly half of all responses. Good hours, good team members, and a workable roster followed.

While all roles prioritised leadership and recognition, farm assistants and herd managers placed more emphasis on hours and team support.

When asked how wellbeing could be improved, employees most often pointed to:

• Better leadership and communication.
• Fair pay.
• Improved rosters and work–life balance.

Workplace productivity

When asked about inefficiencies on‑farm, some responses detailed infrastructure issues though employees overwhelmingly pointed to poor planning and poor communication.

In 2025, the top factors employees said would improve their work efficiency were:

• Improved communication.
• Better planning.
• Stronger leadership.

This highlights how closely productivity is tied to clear direction, organised work and supportive management - not just infrastructure or technology.

Would employees recommend dairy?

Most employees would recommend dairy - but there’s still room to improve.

Across survey years, people are more likely to recommend the dairy sector overall than their current farm.

This gap reinforces the importance of consistent, good on‑farm experiences.