Leptospirosis is a highly infectious bacterial disease affecting humans and most mammals. It is a significant human health risk causing flu-like symptoms or severe ongoing illness.

Discover how well-planned tree planting on farms can provide livestock shelter and prevent soil erosion while enhancing biodiversity, water quality, and pollination.

Join us as we chat with dairy farmer and farmer-elected DairyNZ board member Cam Henderson about his journey from the farm to boardroom.

Tune in to Episode 80 of Talking Dairy, where DairyNZ Senior Scientist Dawn Dalley shares 15 years of research and practical tips to help you manage and ensure your cows thrive during the challenging winter months.

Heat stress can negatively affect dairy cows in many ways. DairyNZ is researching methods of identifying when heat stress might occur to help farmers manage their herds and lessen its impact.

Breeding Worth (BW) is an index that ranks cows and bulls on their ability to breed profitable, efficient replacements. This page explains how BW is used to create herds resilient to changes and disease, therefore increasing farm profits.

A breeding value is an estimate of an animal's genetic merit for a particular trait. Using breeding values to select cows and bulls to be the parents of the next generation is the most effective way to achieve genetic improvement.

Cow performance measurement lets you identify the most and least productive cows in your herd.

Effective cow data recording and performance measurement on your farm can make the difference in breeding decisions.

DairyNZ’s subsidiary NZAEL (New Zealand Animal Evaluation Limited) has recently made a new fertility trait update – in this episode we’ll discuss what this change will mean and how it will benefit farmers.

Scientist

NZ Animal Evaluation Manager

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.

Bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) is a widespread disease impacting around 80% of New Zealand's dairy and beef herds, causing losses in reproduction, increased disease, and reduced growth and milk production.

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.

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.

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.

Grass staggers is a metabolic disease in cows caused by a magnesium deficiency. By giving cows extra magnesium in their diet, you can prevent health issues like grass staggers and milk fever, which can help increase milk production.

Theileriosis is a cattle disease spread by ticks, causing anaemia and sometimes death, especially in calves and cows during calving.

Johne’s disease is a long term, infectious disease that affects the gut of cows and reduces their ability to absorb nutrients. There is no cure, so management focuses on reducing the risk of spread.