Zealand Dairy Products Research Articles

Evaluating the Potential of Double-Muscled Angus Sires to Produce Progeny from Dairy Cows to Meet Premium Beef Brand Specifications

In response to the increasing global demand for sustainable beef production, this review of the literature was undertaken to explore the possibility of using the progeny of cows in the pasture-based New Zealand dairy production system that are mainly of the Holstein–Friesian, Jersey, and Holstein–Friesian × Jersey-cross breeds, to produce beef that meets the standards demanded by the Certified Angus Beef® (CAB) standard. CAB is a United States of America (USA) benchmark for beef quality. Traditionally, the offspring of dairy breeds have not been suitable for producing high-quality beef due to their genetic makeup and physical characteristics. However, in the USA, breeding programmes have used genetic strategies to boost muscle meat yield in terminal-sire breeds like the Lim-Flex® and NuEra Genetics® T14 cattle lines. In these lines, selection has focused on enhancing muscling and other Angus traits, including ensuring the cattle are homozygous polled and black-coloured. The overall aim has been to alter the phenotypic characteristics of the offspring of dairy cows by terminal-sire crosses, so they resemble the phenotype of purebred Angus cattle and meet the CAB standard. The approach can involve using different alleles of the myostatin gene (MSTN) carried by the terminal Angus sires to increase carcass value from the dairy cow-derived male progeny (including the MSTN c.821(del11) allele or the myostatin protein p.F94L leucine-containing allele) to increase meat yield and eating characteristics. It is concluded that a targeted selection and mating strategy could provide another source of high-quality beef production, and one that also meets societal demands for better animal welfare and increased sustainability.

Colorimetry of dairy products

Reflectance colorimetry was investigated to measure the colour of whole (WMP) and skim milk (SKMP) powders, infant formulas (IF), an adult nutritional product (ANP), unsalted (USB) and salted (SB) butters. The colorimeter gave precise results and was cost effective, illustrating the benefits of the adoption of a colorimeter rather than the current practice of using reference charts and powders. New Zealand dairy products are yellower compared with other dairy products because of their relatively high naturally occurring β-carotene content.

Modelling New Zealand dairy products: evidence on export survival and duration

This article presents evidence concerning the pattern of New Zealand dairy exports duration and survival from 1989 to 2017. It also analyses the influence of a set of supply, demand and gravity‐type drivers on the hazard rate for New Zealand dairy export relationships. The findings are summarised as follows. First, New Zealand dairy export relationships are dynamic with numerous entries and exits to and from foreign markets. Around half of the relationships survived for only 1–2 years at the sequence level. Second, duration of sequence, left‐censoring, initial export, decomposed sequences, New Zealand export price index, the number of cows available for dairy production, the number of origins and destinations, and destination partner’s GDP are the most significant factors reducing the hazard rate of export relationships. As regards the effects of the non‐tariff measures, it is interesting that technical barriers of trade are found to significantly decrease the hazard rate. Only pre‐shipment inspection and contingent trade protective measures are significant impediments to New Zealand dairy export relationships. Finally, hazard probabilities for New Zealand dairy export relationships are estimated to be ‘L‐shaped’ over time, whether or not non‐tariff measures are applied to New Zealand dairy products.

Higher Intensity, Higher Profit? Empirical Evidence from Dairy Farming in New Zealand

AbstractOver the last two decades there have been significant and well‐documented changes in the nature and structure of New Zealand dairy production. One particular feature has been a marked shift in the ‘input intensity’ of dairy farming systems through increased use of supplementary feed. These changes have generated debate about the impact of dairy farm intensity on the performance of farm businesses and the competitiveness of the New Zealand dairy sector. Using a novel econometric approach, we assess statistically the impact of three types of dairy farming systems on milk production and financial performance, using farm business data provided by DairyBase®. Our empirical results show that higher input systems perform significantly better physically than lower input systems, but not financially. The disaggregated analysis suggests that the average treatment effects differ by region and performance quantiles.

White clover: the forgotten component of high-producing pastures?

The contribution of white clover (Trifolium repens L.) to nitrogen fixation and feed quality in mixed pastures is indisputable, but the benefits of clover inclusion to total herbage accumulation (HA) are less clear. Results from four experiments comparing mixed pastures of white clover–perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) with perennial ryegrass monocultures are presented. These experiments covered a range of environments (dryland northern New Zealand and irrigated southern New Zealand), management inputs (nitrogen (N) fertiliser rates and defoliation management), and genotypes of ryegrass and white clover. Mixtures resulted in a significantly greater HA than did monocultures in 7 of the 8 years for which data were available; the interaction between pasture type (monoculture or mixture) and N rate was significant in six of those years, with a greater advantage in HA for mixtures under low N rates (mean = 3.08 t DM/ha.year) than under high N rates (mean = 1.54 t DM/ha.year). Two-thirds to four-fifths of the yield advantage under grazing was due to the direct effect of clover contribution (which ranged between 10% and 30% of total annual yield) to HA, most of which accrued in summer. The remainder was due to the capture of additional clover-derived N by the grass component of the mixture, estimated to equate to 50–60 kg N/ha under low N-fertiliser rates and 15–35 kg N/ha under high N rates. The magnitude and consistency of the yield advantages observed here indicates that there are unrealised yield and other benefits not currently being captured in New Zealand dairy production systems, largely because they are negated by the use of high N-fertiliser rates. The agronomic practices required to support clover-rich mixed pastures receiving moderate rates of N fertiliser are well documented and can be applied to help deal with nutrient loss limits required by environmental regulations plus volatility in farm-gate milk prices.

Managing Change for Better: New Zealand Dairy Products Bangladesh Ltd

Effective management of change presents an ongoing series of challenges for organisations, especially for the ones operating in third world countries. This case study has depicted a rare story of successful change management of a real-life organisation, New Zealand Dairy Products Bangladesh Ltd (NZDPBL), articulating experiences such as change of ownership, legal battle, retrenchment and new leadership that took place between years 2002 and 2012. Data for this case were collected between April 2011 and June 2012, mostly through semi-structured interviews of the managing director and six other employees at NZDPBL. The purpose of the case study is to offer management insights to business students and managers. These insights were developed through an exposure to practitioner’s perspective and relevance of that perspective to literature of organisational change management. Authors find that five organisational features for successful change management, that is, organisational structure, organisational culture, organisational learning, managerial behaviour and power and politics, as proposed by scholars, were relevant in the case of NZDPBL. Furthermore, managers are urged to work on these five features collectively for effective management of change. Since the account of NZDPBL evidenced an overlap in the influence of these five features.

Constructing enterprise input-output tables - a case study of New Zealand dairy products

We describe an efficient method for estimating enterprise input-output tables for cases when only information on marginal totals is available. In order to estimate the production structure of enterprises, we utilize engineering knowledge to construct a qualitative prior containing 1 wherever an output may require an input, and 0 otherwise. This qualitative prior is then scaled by the total enterprise turnover, and subsequently reconciled using the RAS method in order to meet accounting rules. We demonstrate the usefulness of this method in an application to dairy product manufacturing in New Zealand, where we estimate the input-output tables for 22 production sites. Our analysis is carried out in units of mass, and hence the accounting rules are mass balance requirements.JEL Classification:Q560, C650, L660.

Socio‐economic drivers of freshwater fish declines in a changing climate: a New Zealand perspective

New Zealand has a freshwater fish fauna characterized by high levels of national and local endemism and which is threatened by anthropogenic stressors including habitat destruction or deterioration, commercial harvest, pollution and interactions with invasive exotic species. Significant expansion of New Zealand's dairy production has recently created further deterioration of lowland water quality and greater pressure for water allocation in drier eastern regions of the South Island. New Zealand has large freshwater resources and its climate is predicted to experience less dramatic changes in mean annual temperature and precipitation than many other regions of the world as a result of anthropogenic climate change. Predicted changes in regional climate and further expansion of the dairy industry, however, will impose similar pressures on freshwater resources in northern New Zealand to those already acting to threaten freshwater biodiversity in the eastern South Island.

Evaluating Input Standards for Non‐Point Pollution Control under Firm Heterogeneity

AbstractThe efficacy and cost of input standards for reducing nitrate pollution from New Zealand dairy production are evaluated. In contrast to previous studies, firm heterogeneity is explicitly considered through the novel integration of efficient techniques for the calibration and decomposition of large optimisation models. Nitrogen fertiliser application should not be targeted by policy given its minor role in determining emissions. In contrast, livestock intensity is an appropriate base for regulation given its strong correlation with pollutant load. Abatement cost increases as stocking rate declines, but this can be offset at low levels of regulation through utilising slack feed resources to improve per‐cow milk production. Both uniform and differentiated input standards based on livestock intensity achieve substantial decreases in pollutant load at moderate cost. However, because of disparity in the slopes of abatement cost curves across firms, a differentiated policy is more cost‐effective at the levels of regulation required to achieve key societal goals for improved water quality.

Fonterra in Latin America: a Case Study of a New Zealand Company Abroad

This article looks at Fonterra’s investments into the Latin American dairy industry. It traces the development of the New Zealand co-operative from exporter of New Zealand dairy products to investor into other countries. It explains why Latin America is a particular focus of this expansion, and outlines the Dairy Partners America alliance with NestlÉ. The article narrates the controversies and achievements of Fonterra’s involvement in Chile, the site of most investment, before considering how New Zealand involvement affects the development of the Chilean dairy industry.

Carbon Footprints, Life Cycle Analysis, Food Miles: Global Trade Trends and Market Issues

Growing international concern about the environment is a great threat to New Zealand access into high value markets. In particular the issue of climate change has grown in political importance as illustrated by the application of the Kyoto Protocol and public debate about issues such as ‘food miles’. Whilst the paper concentrates upon the impact of the latter debates on United Kingdom and European Union markets, there is growing evidence that consumer concerns are not just an issue for those markets. Other markets are also showing increasing concern. Food miles is a concept which has gained traction with the popular press arguing that the further food travels, the more energy is used, and carbon emissions are greater. But what is the reality behind the political rhetoric? Using a food miles methodology, this paper compares New Zealand production shipped to the UK with a UK source. The study reported here found that, due to the different production systems, even when shipping was accounted for, New Zealand dairy products used half the energy of their UK counterparts, and in the case of lamb, a quarter of the energy. In the case of apples, the New Zealand source was 10 percent more energy efficient. In case of onions, whilst New Zealand used slightly more energy in production, the energy cost of shipping was less than the cost of storage in the UK, making New Zealand onions more energy efficient overall. In light of these findings, it is argued that climate change should be addressed through a trade policy focus on the more comprehensive task of reducing carbon footprints over time, rather than a narrower focus on carbon miles.

Iodine content of New Zealand dairy products

New Zealand provides a naturally low-iodine environment. Estimates of New Zealanders’ iodine intakes suggest that intakes have decreased steadily during the 1980s and 1990s. This evidence combined with the reported decrease in the use of iodophors in the dairy industry prompted a review of the iodine content of New Zealand dairy products. Sixteen main types of dairy product and one non-dairy alternative (soy drink) were examined in the survey. In general, up to five different brands with dominant market share were sampled for each type of dairy product in each of the two seasons (winter and spring). The mean values for almost all of the dairy products tested fell within a four-fold range (0.06–0.20 mg/kg). The sole exception was butter (all samples less than 0.04 mg/kg). Fresh milk products (standard and trim milk) sampled in winter (June 1997) had significantly higher iodine content than the products sampled in spring (October 1997). Also, for fresh milk products, samples from the south of the country had higher iodine content (significant for one of the two brands from this region) than samples from the north of the country; whereas samples from the north had significantly higher iodine contents than samples from the central region.

What New Zealand dairy farmers desire from the Government

Discusses the recent trend in the dairy industry towards conglomeration, focusing on the implications for the New Zealand dairy export industry. Describes how a proposed merger of the New Zealand dairy group and Kiwi cooperative dairies (both producer cooperatives) and the Dairy Board (which handled all overseas marketing of New Zealand dairy products) was rejected by the Commerce Commission and discusses the subsequent intervention by the Government in favor of the merger and the formation of a new company, provisionally termed “GlobalCo”. Investigates what dairy farmers desire from the New Zealand Government in the form of legislation and regulation, proposing the following research questions: what are dairy farmers’ perceptions of the dairy merger; how do government regulations affect dairy farmers’ operations; and what are dairy farmers perceptions of government assistance in the industry? Using a holistic‐inductive qualitative study with a sample collected through various contacts in the dairy industry, including farms from the lower half of North Island and all of the South Island, presents findings and outlines implications concerning the government and management at GlobalCo.

Advances in bovine theriogenology in New Zealand. 1. Pregnancy, parturition and the postpartum period

Unique systems of breeding and calving management have been developed to allow New Zealand cattle herd owners to maintain seasonally concentrated calving patterns. Improved pastures are used as the sole ration for most beef and dairy cows with limited conservation and no grain feeding. Patterns of calving are described in relation to herd Planned Start of Calving (PSC) dates, calculated as 282 days after the first date of insemination in the preceding seasonal artificial breeding (AB) programme. Corti-costeroids have been systematically used in over 80% of New Zealand dairy herds to induce premature parturition (calving induction) during the third trimester of pregnancy for about 25 years, to condense calving patterns into periods of 6-12 weeks. Widespread use of calving induction has minimised the adverse effects of declining reproductive performance in dairy herds on the sustainability of seasonally concentrated calving. The use of calving induction is now discouraged on animal welfare grounds and due to possible consequences for the marketing of New Zealand dairy products. Recent declines in the reproductive performance of dairy herds are linked to increased prevalence of extended periods of postpartum anovulatory anoestrus (AA), which has become the major form of infertility in dairy herds in New Zealand and can be related to reliance on grazed pasture as the sole diet for cows of increasing genetic merit The prevalence of AA is influenced by parity, breed, recent genetic origin within a breed, body condition score, herd and year. Management strategies such as oncedaily milking, preferential grazing or feeding of silage, have not proven as successful as hormonal treatments. Although seasonally concentrated calving has remained a standard feature of the industry's low-cost, pasture-based system of management, continuing research will be required to economically maintain this pattern.

The competitive strategy of the New Zealand dairy board

The core strategy of the New Zealand Dairy Board (NZDB) would transform thc organization into a multinational food company. This strategy promises to work effectively if assumptions made by NZDB officials about the future environment are correct. Research and development represent a problem for the firm and New Zealand's dairy industry. The innovative NZDB also faces major uncertainties if stripped of statutory authority to serve as monopoly exporter of New Zealand's dairy products or large firms copy its core strategy. Early mover advantages gained by the NZDB make it a strong competitor in international markets.

Delegation and the Rules of Natural Justice

Kenneth Keith discusses the issues and reasoning of the Privy Council in the case of Jeffs v New Zealand Dairy Production and Marketing Board, in which the New Zealand Court of Appeal decision was reversed. The author’s discussion does not necessarily lead to the conclusion that the Privy Council reached the wrong decision. It does, however, highlight the lack of clarity and precision in the rules that the Privy Council applied, the lack of analysis of the most salient issues in the case, and the lack of response to the points made by the majority of the Court of Appeal. Abstract by Juliet Bull

738. Phospholipids in New Zealand dairy products: III. Effect of storage on the phospholipids and on the partition of phosphorus in butter

Average values for the total phosphorus content of sera from unsalted butter samples and for the phosphorus contents of the various fractions of the sera after partition with trichloroacetic acid were: total P, 83·6 mg./100g.; acid-soluble P, 32·4 mg./100 g.; inorganic P, 28·8 mg/100 g.; acid-insoluble P, 51·2 mg./100 g.; and phospholipid p, 33·6 mg./100 g.There was no evidence that decomposition of the phospholipids or other organic phosphorus compounds occurred in salted or unsalted sweet-cream butters during storage at –10° C. for 8 months.

708. Phospholipids in New Zealand dairy products: II. Seasonal variations in the phospholipid content of butter and of milk and cream

Samples of milk, skim-milk and raw cream from one factory and of pasteurized cream, buttermilk and butter from two factories were taken twice monthly for varying periods for estimation of total phospholipids and (in butter only) of lecithin, cephalin and sphingomyelin.Seasonal variations in the phospholipid contents of milk, skim-milk and raw cream over 13 months probably were due to the greater proportion of small fat globules in autumn (late lactation) milk compared with spring (early lactation) milk.There were regularly recurring seasonal variations in total phospholipid content of the butters over 3 years. Maximum results were found during autumn and minimum results in winter. Lecithin, cephalin and sphingomyelin contents followed the same trends as the total phospholipid contents.Seasonal variations in phospholipid contents of buttermilks and butters were due mainly to variations in the amount of phospholipid per unit of fat in the cream. Differences in butter-making technique had little effect on the proportion of phospholipids from the cream retained in the butter.Average results for total phospholipid content of the products examined were: milk, 0·038% (0·031–0·050%); skim-milk, 0·018% (0·014–0·023%); buttermilk, 0·156% (0·103–0·191%); butter, 0·133% (0·099–0·181%). The average result for percentage of total phospholipid in the fat of the raw creams examined was 0·44% (0·38–0·51%); and in the fat of the pasteurized creams 0·41% (0·35–0·49%). Average weighted results for total phospholipid and for lecithin, cephalin and sphingomyelin contents of butter were 0·139, 0·041, 0·051 and 0·047% respectively.

707. Phospholipids in New Zealand dairy products: I. The estimation of the total phospholipids and of lecithin, cephalin and sphingomyelin in butter

A method has been described for the routine estimation of total phospholipids and of lecithin, cephalin and sphingomyelin in butter. Butter serum was treated with ether and light petroleum in a modified Röse-Gottlieb procedure to extract the phospholipids which then were estimated in the extract.Chloroform-methanol extracted from the butter serum slightly more phosphorus than did the ether-light petroleum mixture. Ethanol-ether, benzene-ethanol and benzene-isopropanol, when used to extract a protein-phospholipid precipitate formed by the addition of trichloroacetic acid to butter serum, also removed slightly more phosphorus than did the ether-light petroleum mixture. The higher phosphorus contents of these extracts was due partly to a slightly more efficient extraction of phospholipids and partly to extraction of non-phospholipid phosphorus compounds.