A SECRET agent of a different kind is making herself known to farmers worldwide and proving there’s more to life onfarm than meets the eye, says LIC.

LIC HAS launched an ‘online learning centre’ to help farmers to update skills and knowledge without leaving the farm. 

"I'm not a high-tech farmer. I just concentrate on getting the basics right."

Despite the drought, more farmers turned to LIC for animal health and artificial breeding services in 2012-13.

Former LIC boss Mark Dewdney is the new chief executive of PGG Wrightson (PGW).

The Jersey breed was one of the foundation stones of the New Zealand dairy industry; not so today with the number and popularity of these brown cows diminishing initially in favour of the larger-framed Friesians but more latterly for crossbreds.

DairyNZ subsidiary NZ Animal Evaluation Ltd (NZAEL), has reached agreement with LIC and CRV Ambreed for a standardised presentation of parentage and daughter based estimates as well as genomic based estimates for bulls this autumn.

Use of DNA sequence technology by farmer cooperative Livestock Improvement (LIC) has led to the discovery of a recessive small calf gene - opening the door to managing small calf syndrome out of the dairy industry.

Wayne McNee is resigning as director general of the Ministry for Primary Industries to take up a new role as chief executive of the Livestock Improvement Corporation LIC.

SCIENTISTS FROM DairyNZ, LIC and the Australian dairy industry have been able to prove that some calves and cows are more efficient converters of feed than others.