A $170 million dairy research programme aims to create the
biggest change in the sector in decades, its backers say.
The Primary Growth Partnership (PGP) funded project aims to
increase the performance and productivity of the dairy
industry while reducing its environmental footprint.
The Government will contribute $85 million, DairyNZ $29
million and Fonterra $47 million, with a further $9 million
from Synlait, Landcorp, LIC, Young Farmers, Agricultural
Services Ltd and Zespri.
DairyNZ chief executive Tim Mackle said the project would
look at changes on the farm and beyond the farm gate,
including research and training to boost on-farm productivity
and sustainability, and in to areas such as nutrition, food
structure, manufacturing and the supply chain.
Fonterra chief technology officer Jeremy Hill said consumers
were looking for food that was safer, tastier, more
convenient, natural, healthy, good value and sustainably
produced.
On-farm research would look at boosting dairy productivity
while reducing the environmental footprint through lifting
professionalism. Proposed research includes the use of
genomic tools to boost production while reducing emissions
and waste and identifying gene markers for fertility,
lameness and mastitis.
Beyond the farm gate, the goal was to increase staff numbers
to deliver research programmes focused on food structures
which could lead to the development of new products. Other
research areas would look at improving processes in
manufacturing and the supply chain.
"This research will help us take our dairy ingredients into
more formats, to more customers and more markets," Dr Hill
said.
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