Herd improvement is what we do. We're providing dairy farmers with precision genetics and technology tools to improve their herds and be more sustainable.
As a co-op, we understand the role we must play in driving positive change through collective action on climate change in New Zealand and supporting our farmer shareholders on the journey.
We are proud to be part of the solution.
Breeding the best cows, faster is key to helping farmers solve the challenge of being profitable and sustainable.
The best cows are more efficient at turning feed into milk, produce more per kilogram of liveweight and are more emissions efficient.
Our farmers are making good progress in this space, they are not only breeding genetically superior cows, they’re also breeding them at a much faster rate.
We provide farmers with the precision genetics and technology tools they need to improve their herds and we’re amplifying this through genomic science to deliver results for farmers at a faster rate.
One of the primary ways we assist farmers to be profitable and sustainable is breeding high genetic merit bulls for artificial breeding to accelerate their herds’ genetic gain.
The widespread use of genomics in our breeding programme, alongside farmers’ sharper focus on herd improvement, has played a key role in the faster rates of genetic improvement we’re seeing.
At an individual farm level there can be many variable factors, but it is conceivable that by 2030 our farmers' whole herd could be performing at the level of their top 25% cows today.
Our R&D investment and focus on innovation is helping Kiwi dairy farmers retain their position as the most efficient milk producers in the world. We are one of the largest investors in research and development for the primary sector, and during the 2021/22 year we invested $18 million into R&D, equivalent to 6.9% of revenue.
Here are some of the exciting initiatives we’re currently working on to help our farmers:
