Mineral Balance: The hidden key to dairy goat health & production
Most dairy goat farmers focus on getting energy, protein, and fibre right, and fair enough – feed drives milk.
Goat farmers supplying milk to the Dairy Goat Cooperative (DGC) were paid $18.50/kgMS last year.
Speaking at the annual meeting last month, chairman Campbell Storey reported a year of strong revenue.
This grew from $177 million in 2015-16 to $193m in 2016-17; sales grew in existing and developing export markets.
“Farmer payout remained positive at $18.50/kgMS,” he said.
During the financial year DGC gained accreditation to the international FSSC22000 food safety systems certification standard.
Farmer-shareholders voted to appoint Mark Dewdney the third independent director on the DGC board. He recently retired as chief executive of PGG Wrightson, having previously worked for Fonterra and LIC.
DGC was set up in 1984 to develop, manufacture and market overseas its own-brand goat milk nutritional powders for infants and children.
It sources goat milk from its shareholder suppliers in Northland, Waikato and Taranaki.
At its Hamilton base it owns and operates all its core manufacturing processes, enabling tightly controlled production of high quality milk formula. It has at least 200 staff there.
DGC products are sold in at least 20 countries.
Three New Zealand agritech companies are set to join forces to help unlock the full potential of technology.
As the sector heads into the traditional peak period for injuries and fatalities, farmers are being urged to "take a moment".
Federated Farmers says almost 2000 farmers have signed a petition launched this month to urge the Government to step in and provide certainty while the badly broken resource consent system is fixed.
Zespri’s counter-seasonal Zespri Global Supply (ZGS) programme is underway with approximately 33 million trays, or 118,800 tonnes, expected this year from orchards throughout France, Italy, Greece, Korea, and Japan.
Animal owners can help protect life-saving antibiotics from resistant bacteria by keeping their animals healthy, says the New Zealand Veterinary Association.
According to analysis by the Meat Industry Association (MIA), New Zealand red meat exports reached $827 million in October, a 27% increase on the same period last year.

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