Reading Time: 2 minutes
A climb of 4% in the 6-week in-calf rate over the past two seasons among New Zealand dairy farmers brought an estimated extra $91.5 million in milk revenue into the industry, according to LIC.
LIC senior reproductive solutions adviser Jair Mandriaza said that figure could well be higher if more farmers reported their data.
It showed farmers have switched their focus from increasing herd numbers to breeding more efficient animals, he said.
鈥淭he better the repro is, the better the farmer is going to be able to run their business.鈥
Farmers lifted their 6-week in-calf rate by 1% in 2024-2025 to 70.1%. In 2023-2024, it jumped 3% 鈥 a huge increase since 2022-2023, where it was recorded at 66.6%.
鈥淭he previous year that was the best year was in 2019 at 67.8%. The worst year we had was 2016 on the back of the dairy downturn where it was 65.8%.鈥
The most recent data is from 4884 spring calving herds, representing 2.6 million cows.
The data set has also increased over time, with 200 more herds added in the most recent data.
The revenue calculation is based on a DairyNZ 6-week in-calf rate calculation that extrapolates the increase into a monetary figure.
There are several possible reasons behind the lift, Mandriaza said. He suspected that apart from a few regional exceptions such as Southland, favourable weather produced good conditions for both feed growth and cow health.
鈥淭hat definitely plays a part.鈥
Mandriaza also believes that farmers are starting to see the rewards after going through a period marked by challenges both on and off farm, which meant farmers had to maximise what they had.
鈥淎 shift of 3% in 2022-2023 is unheard of. Nationwide up until 2023, year-to-year there would be a variation of 1% maximum where it got better or worse.鈥
There were signs that the 6-week in-calf rate could lift during those years because submission rates were good during those years. Those rates were even better for last season.
Farmers also deserve credit for lifting their skills, he said.
鈥淭wo point six million cows is a lot of cows to get right and it鈥檚 definitely a farmer-led scenario and it鈥檚 a combination of everything.鈥
The 3% lift meant more days in milk for cows, which meant more feed needed to keep those animals in condition, a challenge that farmers were able to meet as evident in the 1% lift last season, he said.
He is optimistic about the mating performance for the new season, based on how well farmers are able to manage their feed reserves and maintain condition on their cows despite the extra days in milk they have to plan for.