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.