DairyNZ senior scientist Paul Edwards, of Lincoln, said it was a challenge to attract and retain staff to work in the dairy sector.
More than 6000 people entered the sector each year.
About 40% of them stay in the job beyond a year and most of the rest leave the sector.
"That is the churn we are dealing with."
Speaking at a DairyNZ field day in Otago recently, Dr Edwards said dairy farms need to be an attractive place to work to attract and retain staff.
A DairyNZ survey shows the negative aspects of the work causing staff retention issues include early starts and long hours, especially in spring.
Improving productivity on a farm reduces the number of hours staff need to work and helps retain them, he said.
"It is not about working harder or faster, it is about working smarter," Dr Edwards said.
Automation, such as automatic cup removers, teat sprayers, cow-heat detection, robotic milking and virtual fencing and herding could replace tasks a staff member once had to manually complete.
DairyNZ surveyed 500 farmers last year to find out the automation they had in their milking sheds.
Half of the farmers used a herringbone shed and the other half used a rotary shed.
In the herringbone sheds, 31% had cup removers and 14% had teat sprayers.
In the rotary sheds, 88% had cup removers and 83% had teat sprayers.
Adopting automation was easier in a rotary shed.
The installation of automatic cup removers and teat sprayer in a rotary shed produces a 43% gain in labour efficiency or cows milked per person per hour.
He believed automated cup removers in a herringbone did not improve milking efficiency because staff waited for the cups to come off the cow.
Often the technology was set so the cups came off later than when a staff member would remove them.
In contrast, there was a bigger opportunity to automate teat spraying in a herringbone shed.
"It eliminates a task from your milking routine and increases milking efficiency."
