New Zealand government scientists will part-fund trials into a cattle treatment that may significantly increase milk production, according to Andy West, chief executive officer of state-owned AgResearch Ltd.
The study with Ancare Scientific Ltd. will take a year and cost more than NZ$500,000 ($377,000), West told journalists at the opening today of the nation's Fieldays agricultural fair. The product may lift milk production as much as 10 percent, Ancare Scientific Managing Director Colin Harvey said in a telephone interview from Auckland.
New Zealand is the world's largest dairy exporter and accounts for about 40 percent of the global trade in milk powders, butter and cheese. The nation is also the largest producer of sheep meat and kiwifruit, and agriculture accounts for about 38 percent of the country's $104 billion economy.
``It's an exciting deal,'' West said. ``If it works in a large-scale, real-world farming situation, it will be a truly significant technology in global dairying.''
The product being trialed would be given to cows in the dry season to stimulate milk production, Ancare's Harvey said. Being natural and non-hormonal should make it attractive to regulators and end-users, and commercial development may be three to five years away, he said. Ancare Scientific's products are distributed by animal-treatments maker Merial Ltd.
Role for Science
The Ancare trial is an example of the science New Zealand will need to use to remain competitive in international markets, West said. Half the nation's merchandise exports depend in some way on pastoral farming, he said.
Fieldays, the southern hemisphere's biggest agricultural fair, attracts as many daily visitors as the three-day World Ag Expo hosted annually in Tulare County, California. The two-yearly Sima expo in Paris and Germany's annual Agritechnica event in Hanover are the largest agricultural fairs.
