ABSTRACT
New Zealand Pastoral agriculture has made great strides in livestock productivity. Production emphasis is on output per unit input rather than on individual animal performance. A New Zealand dairy farmer is more interested in milk production per acre of land resource than in the herd average per cow. In New Zealand, increasing livestock productivity has involved developing a better understanding of soil-plant-animal interactions, particularly in terms of optimizing forage production and utilization. This has included choosing plants and animals that are suited to the environment and one another, better forage and animal management practices, and producing the end-product most suitable for the resources available. The fast rate and amount of regrowth after early forage conservation is often quite surprising to producers who have traditionally harvested hay later in the season. The primary role of sheep and cattle in New Zealand is to convert forage into meat, just as is done in the United States.
