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HubWatch – 14 November 2025

Your weekly glimpse into research in action at Southern Dairy Hub....

Media Release: Southern Dairy Hub General Manager moves to new pastures

After nearly three years, Southern Dairy Hub general manager, Andrea Dixon, is stepping down to focus on the next step in her career, family and personal priorities. “I’m extremely proud of what we’ve achieved over the last, almost, three years. The Hub is an incredible farm, and our new demonstration focus means we can get meaningful insights to our farmers in real time” Dixon said.“Working with DairyNZ, SDDT and Bioeconomy Science Institute (previously AgResearch) has been a pri...

HubWatch – 7 November 2025

Your weekly glimpse into research in action at Southern Dairy Hub....

HubWatch – 31 October 2025

Your weekly glimpse into research in action at Southern Dairy Hub....

HubWatch – 24 October 2025

Your weekly glimpse into research in action at Southern Dairy Hub....

HubWatch – 17 October 2025

Your weekly glimpse into research in action at Southern Dairy Hub....

HubWatch – 10 October 2025

Your weekly glimpse into research in action at Southern Dairy Hub....

SDH GM Andrea Dixon chats with Andy from the Muster on Hokonui about the upcoming farm tour on 8 October.

The SDH Farm Tour on 8 October is a great opportunity to hear from speakers Charlotte Westwood and Leo Pekar, and to join discussions on pasture management....

HubWatch – 3 October 2025

Your weekly glimpse into research in action at Southern Dairy Hub....

Bridging Research and Reality - Dairy Country

The Southern Dairy Hub is running a farm systems demonstration at scale, focusing on profitability, animal performance and behaviour, environmental outcomes and feed utilisation.Read the article HERE...

HubWatch – 26 September 2025

Your weekly glimpse into research in action at Southern Dairy Hub....

Spring Newsletter

Welcome to the latest edition of our newsletter. With spring underway, the Southern Dairy Hub team is focused on pasture management, ongoing research, and our spring rotation planner. In this edition, you’ll find practical insights to take back to your farm, along with updates on key projects.Once again, we’re excited to share progress from the Future Farm Systems Demonstration Trial, comparing our Future Herd (focused on individual cow performance at lower stocking rates) with our Standard ...

HubWatch – 19 September 2025

Your weekly glimpse into research in action at Southern Dairy Hub....

HubWatch – 12 September 2025

Your weekly glimpse into research in action at Southern Dairy Hub....

HubWatch – 5 September 2025

Your weekly glimpse into research in action at Southern Dairy Hub....

HubWatch – 29 August 2025

Your weekly glimpse into research in action at Southern Dairy Hub....

HubWatch – 22 August 2025

Your weekly glimpse into research in action at Southern Dairy Hub....

HubWatch – 15 August 2025

Your weekly glimpse into research in action at Southern Dairy Hub....

Winter Newsletter

Welcome to the latest edition of our newsletter. With winter well underway, the Southern Dairy Hub team has wrapped up the dry-off process and turned our focus to wintering, pasture management and ongoing research.  There are a few great reads in this newsletter, plus a few practical insights you can take back to the farm. As always, we’re very excited to share an update on our Future Farm Systems Demonstration Trial, comparing our Future Herd (focused on individual cow performance at low...

The Research at your Doorstep: Wintering Guide – 2025

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SDH on the Dairy Country podcast

In the latest Dairy Country podcast, Southern Dairy Hub GM Andrea Dixon and DairyNZ senior scientist Dawn Dalley break down our side-by-side herd trial, comparing a standard herd with a future-focused, low-stock, high genetic merit herd. Discover how we’re tracking profitability, efficiency, and environmental outcomes. Listen now....

SDH GM Andrea Dixon chats with Andy from the Muster on Hokonui about the winter farm tour on 18 June.

The SDH winter farm tour is a great opportunity to check out our paddock set up, the grass, baleage and swedes, and to learn about our wintering techniques.  ...

SDH GM Andrea Dixon chats with Andy from The Muster on Hokonui about winter grazing, sharing key reminders to help farmers stay ahead this season.

Listen here...

HubWatch – 30 May 2025

Thats a wrap for the 2024-25 season. It was nice to have a strong end to the season after such at difficult start. While milk production was 8% back on last year (which was a record season for the farm) supply to the factory was 3 kg MS short of 319000 for the season and the third highest season production since the farm was converted.Final 2.5 paddocks were aerated this week....

2023–24 Farmlet Comparison Results

The 2023-24 dairy season was originally intended as the first year of a three-year farm systems comparison incorporating the proposed off-paddock infrastructure into one of the farmlets. The initial design used an unbalanced 2x2 factorial, with system intensity (standard (Std) vs lower impact (LI)) and wintering type (fodder beet vs silage/baleage) comprising the two factors. The design was unbalanced due to the needs of the standard system, in which it was proposed that cows would be winte...