Dairy farmers are being advised to consider once-a-day milking at the start of the new milking season, to help the recovery of light-conditioned cows.
Some sheep farmers are also battling with ewes in light condition after several weeks of wet, cold weather, which followed a tough autumn.
Sue Hagenson, the manager of dairy consultant LIC FarmWise, said her staff had noticed "a significant" number of light-conditioned cows in parts of the country in the lead up to calving.
She suggested farmers opt to milk them once a day for the first 28 days after calving.
"Feedback from farmers who have used the once-a-day milking tool for the first 28 days from the start of proper calving is that cows did not lose condition at the rate that would normally result from twice-a-day milking.
"It enabled cows to recover from the stress of calving, not draw as much energy and subsequently body fat reserves to enable them to recover from their negative energy balance quicker, and go forward to mating with better body-condition score.
"This subsequently improved conception rates, particularly in the first three weeks of mating."
She said once-a-day milking did not compromise milk production during that period, or the milk peak.
"Once-a-day milking farmers also said they didn't need to feed as much and therefore saved, on average, 0.5kg to 1kg of dry matter a cow a day for those first 28 days."
Some sheep farmers have also noticed that stock was lighter in condition than desired and this could impact on the lamb drop, especially in areas hit by summer drought, followed by an ordinary autumn.
A kind start to winter allowed farmers to conserve scarce supplies of feed, but conditions have since turned wet and cold and some farmers report stock condition has deteriorated.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry reported this week that in some areas of the country, poor ewe condition could compromise the spring lamb drop and it predicts lower lamb production for the coming year.