The transition period in a cow's life requires precise feed management to ensure health and optimal milk production. It’s important to set BCS targets, monitor those targets and adjust your feed budget as required, especially pre- and post-calving.

If you're a rural professional discussing breeding decisions, herd management, or seasonal planning, this section of the website is for you. It will give you practical support to strengthen relationships and add value at every step.

Bulk milk urea concentration is a near real-time indicator of the dietary crude protein status of dairy herds and their nitrogen use efficiency, helping to support feed and nitrogen management decisions in pasture-based systems.

This high input, highly stocked farm, depends on effective feed monitoring, efficient effluent management and improving herd fertility for success.

As a fertiliser advisor, your expertise already drives nutrient planning and paddock performance. This hub supports your broader farm systems knowledge, offering resources to help you confidently advise on feed demand, pasture, and seasonal planning.

A pasture feed wedge is a tool that visually displays your farm's current pasture situation. By ranking your paddocks based on average pasture cover, it can help you make proactive decisions about pasture management.

Homegrown feed is one of the strongest drivers of profitable, resilient dairy farm systems in New Zealand. Lifting the amount of pasture and crop grown and eaten can improve operating profit per hectare and help reduce emissions intensity.

Spring management focuses on the critical period from calving through to your balance date when feed supply meets demand.

With NIWA’s prediction of an El Nino weather pattern and a high likelihood of a drier summer, how are farmers preparing? In this episode, we’re talking to Trevor Hamilton and Kevin McKinley who share their strategies for preparing for a dry summer.

A 2024/25 study of 10 New Zealand dairy farms explored how tech, milking frequency, and people management boost productivity. See the impact on performance, expenses, and task efficiency via seasonal comparisons across the farms.

Free stall barns are engineered structures for housing dairy cattle. Free stall barns can significantly improve feed usage, herd comfort, and reduce maintenance costs, but they can require a substantial initial investment and experienced management.

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.

Recording which cows are managed together in herd management groups ensures cows are compared with cows managed under the same conditions. This gives more accurate information for breeding, culling, feeding and long-term herd improvement decisions.