"Hi everyone, I'm Rosie and I've been chosen as the New Zealand dairy industry Cowbassador.
I'm going to be travelling all over New Zealand - and maybe even the world - to find out what makes our dairy industry one of the best in the world - how mooo-vellous! "
(Fin discusses Fonterra's 'dropping' of organic milk industry.)
The dairy industry is much more friendly to conventional farming. From DairyNZ to semen companies and obviously Fonterra.
E.g. cows have been bred to make lots of milk (probably too much for a grass based diet which relies on Mother Nature) and to milk out quickly. This has resulted in cows who leak milk from their udders before they calve and thus the open teat canal allows bugs up and cows, and even HEIFERS, come in with mastitis.
Ryegrasses have been bred to grow so quickly that no other species of forage is worth sowing (in the eyes of many) and so there are no tap root species to suck up minerals and moisture. Many farmers seem to forget even clover and prefer to buy their N. Having a monoculture pasture means that all the plants die at the same time when it gets dry leaving lots of leaf litter for Facial Eczema fungus.
Indeed, SSB, the easiest path into dairy, with the most support from drug companies, vets, DairyNZ, Fonterra, farm advisers, farm discussion groups and the internet is likely conventional.
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