The page covers the essential design considerations for dairy entries and exits to ensure efficiency and cow welfare. It highlights the need for safe, reliable footing, a controlled slope at the entrance, and proper lighting conditions.

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.

Building a robust track for dairy farming requires a comprehensive understanding of construction principles and potential problems. This page guides you through the basic steps for constructing a sturdy and efficient track for cow traffic.

Calculating Metabolisable Energy (ME) needs is important for dairy cows. You adjust for feed quality by adding or subtracting 4% per MJ ME/kg DM from the standard 11.0 MJ ME/kg DM.

Accurate drafting of cows into groups is a crucial part of managing a herd on dairy farms, and it becomes even more essential as herd sizes grow. This page discusses the importance of automated drafting systems in New Zealand dairy farming.

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

Using heat detection aids efficiently will help ensure a successful mating period on your dairy farm. There are different heat detection aids for cows, including tail paint, heat mount detectors, electronic heat detection, and vasectomised bulls.

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.

Apart from milk culture, individual cow somatic cell counts (ICSCCs) are the best method for determining whether cows have subclinical mastitis.

Carbohydrates, forming about 75% of plant dry matter, provide the major energy source for dairy cows and aid in milk glucose and fat production.

Kale is a winter feed crop with a deep root system, making it drought-resistant. It's tolerant to many pests and is often grown after swedes due to its resistance to club root and dry rot.

Non-cycling cows can drastically impact your herd's reproductive performance. This page discusses two types of non-cyclers: those that have ovulated but shown no visible signs of heat, and true non-cyclers that haven't started ovulating since calving

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.