Special Reports
Contract milking during a low milk price
Inevitable fluctuations of milk prices potentially bring stress to contract milking relationships. Paul Bird offers some help.
Pasture management in the wet
Most regions of New Zealand have experienced significantly more rainfall this season than usual, and much more than was predicted. By Claire Ashton.
Contract Milking SIDE Workshop
Contract milkers, farm owners and farm advisers gave their advice at a workshop on contract milking at this year’s South Island Dairy Event. By Anne Lee.
Clock ticking on agrichemicals
European Union rules on a range of agrichemicals used in New Zealand farming are set to expire by 2030. By Elaine Fisher.
Maize on the move
Maize is an important crop for supplements across the country despite challenges of floods and climate change shifting regions and bringing new crops. By Delwyn Dickey.
Tension ahead over contracts
Tumbling milk prices and rising costs may lead to strife between farm owners and their contract milkers, Anne Lee reports.
A plan with pink hearts
A target of 50/50 sharemilking in five years features in the plans of a young migrant couple, contract milking in Southland. By Anne Lee. Photos by Edwin Mabonga.
Health and safety made easier with onfarm apps
Smart phone apps are now a useful, or even essential, tool with onfarm health and safety, Claire Ashton writes.
Squeezing fertility
Farmers should have a plan leading up to mating to minimise the hangover of yet another difficult season and what it will do to their reproductive results. Many cows were milked longer leading up to this season to take financial advantage of grass growth, but it could all catch up with them at mating, LIC’s Jair Mandriaza says. Sheryl Haitana reports.
Fertile farming in the north
First Paddy and Debbie Thornton were share milkers, then they bought the farm, and more. By Delwyn Dickey.