"Whilst we're starting to see those borders opening up again, we don't see international workers as being the long-term, or even the short-term solution anymore."
An increasingly urbanised and ageing population, along with a wider range of job options, made recruitment even tougher, Muir said.
"There are so many different types of jobs available, so attracting people is really challenging."
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Then there was the problem of keeping staff.
"Too many people come into dairy and then leave," Muir said.
"They leave for a variety of reasons, some of it workplace-related - it could be not seeing a promotion or feeling valued - there also could be issues around pay, hours and housing - so we've got a lot of challenges."
Luckily DairyNZ was doing something about it, working closely with farmers, the government and other organisations on a 10-year plan, Muir said.
"The idea is to give us more of a resilient workforce."
One area of focus was making dairying jobs more attractive.
"One example would be strengthening training pathways so that young farmers can build their skills and move into more senior positions.
"Another strategy is about how we can better adopt technology on-farm and help create more work-life balance."
Offering more appealing jobs was also important, such as flexible milking, Muir said.
The dairy sector also needed to learn to recruit outside its comfort zone.
"It's about looking in new places. Historically we've looked in the rural sector for our people and we need to think broader than that because the rural sector isn't growing - urbanisation is growing - so we need to look outside."
Dairy also needed to shift its focus from attraction to retention, Muir said.
"Effectively that means if we can make the job really good, then we can keep people but it will also make it easier for us to attract people.
"So our focus is really on that retention and how we can keep the people we've already got and then build on that."
