In calf rearing, the smallest details often have the biggest impact. While feed and genetics remain critical, bedding is increasingly recognised as a key driver of calf health, growth, and overall performance.
For decades, probiotics in calf rearing have been treated as a reactive tool – something to reach for when illness strikes. That thinking, according to Matt Collier of Probiotic Revolution, is leaving significant money on the table.
When a cow goes down after calving, it is easy to blame the calving itself. Milk fever, calving stress, poor weather, bad luck. Yet many down cows are not caused by one dramatic event. They are the end result of poorly transitioned cows entering calving under nutritional pressure.
Dry-off feels like a break. For the cow, it's anything but.
Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD) is one of the most common - and most expensive - health challenges on dairy farms. Often referred to as pneumonia or "shipping fever" (a stress-triggered form that can develop after transport), BRD can hit calves hard and fast.
Mid-season on farm is where good habits are tested. Workloads build, the days stack up, and what felt straightforward at the end of the season can begin to feel like a grind. It is also the point where small lapses in consistency can creep in, often without anyone noticing in the moment.
New research suggests sheep and beef farmers could improve both profitability and emissions efficiency by increasing lamb weaning weights, with only marginal changes in total greenhouse gas emissions.
The Eliminating Facial Eczema Impacts programme recently hosted a webinar about the progress the sheep poo study has made in helping understand facial eczema (FE).
New research suggests sheep and beef farmers could improve both profitability and emissions efficiency by increasing lamb weaning weights, with only marginal changes in total greenhouse gas emissions.
Feeding stock well and drenching only those animals facing a parasite challenge are key tactics in managing parasites in cattle, especially in autumn and early winter.
New research is helping farmers better understand and manage fertility, with clearer tools and measures to support more robust, productive herds.
The dry period isn’t just a farm holiday but a chance to get your herd match-fit for calving and early lactation. If you treat it as a focused phase of preparation, recovery and capacity building, you’ll see the benefits when the cows return to milk.
Farmers will get an opportunity to hear about the latest developments in sheep genetics at the Sheep Breeder Forum this May.
Beef + Lamb NZ Wormwise consultant, vet and farmer, Mary Bowron outlines how to set beef weaners up for success in the war against worms.
Research data and practical experience, from New Zealand and around the world, has shown that youngstock rearers can positively influence lifetime productivity of calves, kids and lambs, simply by feeding them well in the first eight weeks of their lives.
A $20 million dairy beef programme will help farmers capture greater value from their animals.
Ginny Dodunski, Wormwise's programme manager, Beef+Lamb New Zealand, outlines what to do when faecal egg counts indicate that worms are surviving your drench.
Somatic cell counts on the rise in late lactation?
Body condition scoring ewes at least six weeks out from mating can make a significant difference to conception rates and scanning percentages.
Wormwise vet Mary Bowron gives timely advice about worm management prior to mating, particularly being on the look-out for the blood-sucking Barber's Pole worm.
New DairyNZ research will help farmers mitigate the impacts of heat stress on herds in high-risk regions of the country.
Recent rainfall has made for a fantastic growing season in many regions, but farmers are also reporting a proliferation in pests and diseases such as facial eczema, flystrike, porina and internal parasites.
Bovonic says a return on investment study has found its automated mastitis detection technology, QuadSense, is delivering financial, labour, and animal-health benefits on New Zealand dairy farms worth an estimated $29,547 per season.
When Ian Smith built a 520-bed free stall barn on his Drummond dairy farm in 2014, it changed the way he farmed.
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