Learn about teat preparation and spraying basics and how washing keeps milk quality high, prevents damage, and reduces mastitis. Discover handy tips like strategic washing, proper drying, and avoiding bulk washing.

Sodium is vital for dairy cows, aiding in water balance and nerve and muscle function. It's expelled routinely and needs replacing. This page discusses how certain regions, like the Central Plateau pumice soils, can be deficient in sodium.

Paddocks damaged by pugging and wet weather can be managed with simple strategies but more extensive damage may require pasture renewal.

Succession planning is the process of transferring farm assets, knowledge, and skills to the next generation.

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.

Flexible milking is a term for milking practices that fall between the traditional once-a-day (OAD) or twice-a-day (TAD) milking.

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.

Moving animals on and off a farm has its risks. A common way for cow-associated mastitis bacteria to be introduced into a herd is in the udders of cows that are brought in.

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.

Dead stock management is the process of dealing with farm animal fatalities. It is important to appropriately dispose of carcasses to avoid spreading diseases, contaminating water, and harming the dairy industry's public image.

Establishing a successful sharemilking or contract milking relationship requires thorough due diligence. This page emphasises that understanding your own goals, values, and financial situation can affect not just you, but also your business partners.

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.

Calf scours, or diarrhoea in calves, can be caused by multiple factors and if untreated, can lead to severe dehydration and even death. This disease disrupts the normal water movement in the digestive tract, leading to water and salt loss.