ONCE-A-DAY (OAD) milking is the only way New Zealand will retain its competitive advantage, Small Herds Association field day participants were told last week at Hikurangi, Northland.

APPROVAL OF the Crafar farms sale to Chinese buyers by the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) has prompted many claims made in the battle to win the New Zealand public's hearts and minds.

NINE YEARS ago Erica and Lindsay Whyte's farm, just south of Doubtless Bay, had a problem with land sucking up too much fertiliser and paddocks they weren't able to calve cows in.

MAF SAYS it has considered the risks associated with a new ruminant viral disease sweeping Europe and considers them "sufficiently managed."

NEW ZEALAND dairy farmers need not worry about major farmgate losses should a supermarket milk price war break out.

OLAM INTERNATIONAL, the Singapore-based multinational with stakes in a couple of New Zealand registered dairy firms, is moving into Russia.

ALL THE milk the Tait-Jamiesons produce from their 150 cows is processed by them on their farm into organic yoghurt and milk, and sold to supermarkets around the country. 

SIMPLE RULES and precision pasture management make David Lister's 147ha dairy farm near Temuka one of the most profitable in the country, and he's got the award to prove it.

LOSING NUTRIENTS is just losing money. That was one of the key messages from Southland dairy farmer Vaughan Templeton speaking at last week's Fertiliser and Lime Research Centre conference at Massey University.

FACIAL ECZEMA (FE) occurs when grazing animals eat pasture containing large numbers of spores from the fungus Pithomyces chartarum. They contain sporidesmin, a toxin which causes inflammation of the liver and bile ducts.