New Zealand dairy is synonymous with innovation
It was the world-leading expertise and passion
I saw in the New Zealand dairy sector that drew me to join DairyNZ two years ago.
I saw an opportunity to contribute to a globally relevant sector and help shape its future.
My background is in agricultural science and leadership, with experience across commercial, research, and industry-facing roles in Argentina, Australia, and New Zealand.
I’ve developed and led large collaborative programmes, and focused on delivering science that makes a difference on-farm and beyond.
Industry-good, science-backed
DairyNZ is the industry-good organisation that represents all New Zealand dairy farmers.
Our work centres on building a profitable, sustainable, and resilient dairy sector through science, research, policy advocacy, economic analysis, and extension to farmers.
DairyNZ is primarily funded by dairy farmers through a milksolids levy, which is leveraged to attract co-funding from government and other partners.
This enables us to maximise the value of every levy dollar invested into research.
As Head of Science, I ensure our research addresses today’s challenges while anticipating future opportunities.
It’s about building the right skills and ensuring our team has the knowledge and focus to deliver for the sector.
Our science team remains focused on the key areas that matter to farmers, including forages, animal performance, people, farm systems, greenhouse gas emissions, water quality and animal care.
Combined with our broader research and technical staff, including geneticists, data scientists, economists, modellers, and farm teams, this group makes up 40% of our total staff and accounts for 47% of total revenue.
This makes us one of New Zealand’s larger independent research organisations, dedicated to our country’s biggest export industry.
We are a sector built on decades of research that has driven, and continues to drive, scientific breakthroughs.
Our goal with every research investment is to deliver practical outcomes that help dairy farmers improve productivity and profitability, ensuring the sector remains sustainable and competitive.
We can only farm if we can make a living, and our sector has a proud track record of productivity gains driven by genetics, system improvements, good management, environmental stewardship and science.
Partnering for the future
To ensure our research has real-world impact, we work closely with partners including dairy companies, sector organisations like Beef + Lamb New Zealand, government agencies like MPI, crown research institutes, universities, private companies, and international collaborators.
Most importantly, we work with dairy farmers who bring critical on-farm insights.
They trust us to deliver independent advice in a world in pursuit of commercial gain.
These partnerships help us attract around 13% of our revenue from external sources, further enhancing the value of levy investment.
Our regional teams also play a key role, with expertise in farm systems, economics, and the environment.
They help ground our research in the day-to-day realities of farming.
In 2023, we established an independent international science panel to review and provide feedback on our research.
Meeting twice a year, this panel helps ensure our work remains credible, robust, and aligned with global best practices.
It also ensures that any levy funding is used effectively, avoiding duplication of research already conducted overseas, and enhancing collaboration with international partners, when it makes sense to do so.
Major research initiatives
Reducing dairy’s environmental footprint is a key focus of our science, helping farmers prepare for future changes and adapt smoothly rather than facing sudden disruption.
Our focused programmes, like Healthy Waterways, support biodiversity and water quality through riparian planting and science-backed solutions.
Given dairy farmers face a 190kg/ha/year cap on nitrogen use since 2021, the Low N Systems programme tests strategies like reduced nitrogen fertiliser, diverse pastures, and pasture-based wintering to cut nitrogen loss while keeping farms viable.
The Plantain Potency and Practice programme demonstrates how the grazing herb plantain can reduce nitrogen leaching and greenhouse gas emissions.
Including plantain at 20-30% of a grazed ryegrass/clover mixed pasture has resulted in average annual nitrogen leaching reductions of 26% at Massey over four years, and 23% at Lincoln over two years.
This is the largest multi-year multi-partner project DairyNZ has undertaken in the past decade, which is testament to the importance placed on sustainable farming.
Methane emissions are another major challenge we are supporting farmers to overcome through science.
New Zealand’s pasture-based farms are among the most emissions-efficient globally, but ongoing reductions are crucial.
Our Waikato research farms, Lye and Scott, are key sites for testing methane mitigation strategies.
The Future GHG Solutions project focuses on evaluating methane-reducing compounds and farm system practices, updating national and on-farm methane accounting models, and scaling any promising strategies.
Because New Zealand dairy is pasture-based, any solution must suit these systems.
There’s no silver bullet, but we’re working with farmers to find practical, scalable approaches that reduce methane while protecting animal health, product quality and economics.
We are also collaborating with Fonterra and LIC to generate and analyse a large-scale database, exploring links between emissions and profitability to ensure the whole farm system is considered when making moves to reduce emissions.
Our forages research aims to improve pasture and animal performance by looking at genetics, forage combinations, management practices and climate-adapted farm systems to increase home-grown feed and build resilience to a changing and variable climate, whilst also reducing environmental impact.
Ultimately, our focus is on anticipating future challenges and opportunities, ensuring every research investment delivers insights and tools that create real value for farmers.
Through this work, we’re committed to supporting a productive, resilient, and sustainable New Zealand dairy sector for generations to come.
To learn more about how DairyNZ supports farmers through science and innovation, visit the DairyNZ website.
