AUSTRALIAN FARMERS are welcoming the Federal Government’s decision to introduce a foreign investment register, announced last week by Prime Minister Julia Gillard at the National Farmers Federation national congress.

IF YOU are making pasture silage this spring, research shows it is worth doing the job properly. A trial in the 1997/98 season at DairyNZ’s No 1 farm compared the milksolids production of cows fed a low pasture allowance plus 5kgDM/cow/day of high- (10.4 MJME/kgDM), medium- (9.4 MJME/kgDM) and low- (8.3 MJME/kgDM) quality pasture silage in spring, summer and autumn.  

THE NEWLY converted farm is a few kilometres from Normanby. It’s great dairy country and on a fine day you can clearly see the centrepiece of the region – Mt Taranaki. 

CALVING IS over for most farmers, and disbudding, tagging and vaccinating the calves are ticked off. And for most, AB is well underway.

DAIRY farmers now can use genetics to reduce the risk of facial eczema (FE) on their operations says CRV Ambreed breeding  programme manager Aaron Parker.

ADAPTING TO robotic milking can be a longer process for farmers than for cows, says a Cambridge dairyman cited by DeLaval.

SEVERAL HUNDRED hectares of one-year-old pine trees are to be mulched to make way for pasture and then herds of dairy cows. The reason: the low cost of carbon credits and the higher returns from dairying

IT’S A day-on, day-off working week for New Zealand’s best ever artificial breeding bull Howies Checkpoint. Farmers are lining up to use the ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ bull in the upcoming dairy mating season, but LIC says it has to make sure he doesn’t get worn out. 

WHEN MANY farms are resorting to immigrant labour to solve staffing issues, Mid Canterbury contract milker Shane Edwards is taking a different tack with an all-homegrown policy.

GETTING PASTURE and feed management right after calving was an essential part of a successful mating, Phillipa Hedley, DairyNZ business developer, told farmers at a field day held on Alistair and Lynn Candy’s Northland monitor farm in Okaihau on September 25.