GETTING MORE cows in calf is the biggest improvement you can make to your dairy business.

IN AN effort to improve the accuracy of his company's effluent spreaders, Andrew Williams, Williams Engineering, has been doing trials, with Massey University, to verify the application rates they recommend.

THE HOUGHTON farm at Ngarua has been home to Neil and Shirley for 40 years and “everything you see we put here,” says Neil.

Helping dairying women along their journeys toward developing dairy businesses in the face of challenges is one of the main themes of this year's Dairy Womens Network annual conference.

The expertise of Lower North Island dairy farmers has been used to create a series of fact sheets to help farmers nationwide build and maintain the riparian margins of streams on their land.

"Pasture management is where the farming system starts," says Morrinsville dairy farmer Johan van Ras. In the order of things it comes before animal health because if you haven't got this right, your business can't perform.

The Waikato Regional Council is now planning to work with the farmers as they apply for necessary water take consents required under its Variation 6 policy on water allocation.

Reports a Pak'nSave  has joined boutique supermarket Nosh in selling milk for an equivalent price of one dollar a litre, supports Federated Farmers view that attention needs to focus on supermarket margins.

Balclutha will play host to the first regional final of The National Bank Young Farmer Contest this Sunday (February 12) at the Telford Division of Lincoln University on Owaka Highway.

A new "good clean dairying" promotion will feature at this month's Effluent Expo at Mystery Creek, being organised by Waikato Regional Council and sponsored by DairyNZ.