10 December 2010 Help to tansform dairying

Lincoln University's commitment to dairying is deep. Activities such as the establishment of a state-of-the-art commercial demonstration dairy farm; support for the founding of a South Island Dairying Development Centre; backing for the South Island Dairy Event (SIDE); investment with DairyNZ in a professorship in Dairy Production; and the recent creation of a Dairy Research Farm, are all indicators of the University's encouragement for the industry which now vies with Tourism as New Zealand's top export dollar earner.

As New Zealand's specialist land-based university committed to transforming land, people and economies, Lincoln University is always delighted to see the positive changes brought about through its teaching and research.

In dairying the transformational impact is achieved in a variety of ways. For example, the South Island Dairying Development Centre (SIDDC), of which Lincoln University and SIDE are two of seven partner organisations, runs an annual schedule of Farm Focus Days in Canterbury on the Lincoln University Commercial Demonstration Dairy Farm. Each has different themes and topics, attendances are typically in the 250-300 range, and the days provide accurate and challenging information to help decision-making by South Island dairy farmers.

While this sort of information transfer is centred on the Commercial Demonstration Dairy Farm, only a couple of kilometres away is another Lincoln University farm also having a transformational impact on New Zealand's agricultural economy. It is Lincoln University's Dairy Research Farm, a 55- hectare unit which began milking in August 2009 and was set up specifically to provide a dedicated research facility and to help foster links with external organisations such as DairyNZ. Among projects lined up to be tested on the farm is a multi-million dollar study involving Professor of Dairy Production Grant Edwards, Professor of Soil Science Keith Cameron, Professor of Agronomy Bruce McKenzie, and animal scientists Dr Jim Gibbs and Dr Sabrina Greenwood. Their work, some of which has started on the research farm already, has the potential to literally change the way New Zealand's dairy export industry operates and to ensure its environmental, economic and social sustainability.

The team have set themselves the challenging goals of reducing nitrate leaching per hectare by 50 percent and increasing milk solids production by 30 percent by 2020.

Among the methods they are working on to reduce the impact of dairying on the environment are advances in animal selection and pasture, as well as nutritional information technology, which will lead to farm systems featuring fewer but more nitrogen-efficient cows. These cows will be able to produce higher milk yields from grazing on more diverse and higher quality pastures. The reduced stock numbers will decrease the impact on the environment. "Increasing milk production to meet demand and improving the profitability of dairy farms are vital to New Zealand's economy," says Professor Edwards.

That's a message with which SIDE would certainly agree.