Dairy cow breeding is undergoing a paradigm shift, especially with the availability of low-cost ‘-omic’ tools. This review focuses on the tools available to achieve the necessary characteristics of the ideal cow. The review concludes with a speculation on the breeding landscape of the future.

Feeding cows on grazed grass is the most sustainable both environmentally and economically. However, there are periods when cows cannot be grazed due to poor soil conditions or inadequate pasture and an alternative has to be found. This research showed that dairy cows, when adequately fed, are not under any environmental stress when exposed to the weather in a temperate climate. The primary focus of alternatives to pasture should be on providing adequate feed, a dry lying area, sustainable capturing of nutrients and the total cost per animal.

This paper describes how farmers can be empowered to meet increasing challenges of changing conditions related to markets, climate or the policy environment through better organised agricultural research, development and extension (RD&E). It reports on three case studies in the Australian and New Zealand dairy sector to reveal that, currently, RD&E supports adaptability of farmers in general, but varies in the strength of its presence and level of activity in the areas known to enhance adaptability. It identifies key principles for dairy scientists and others in the RD&E systems to consider in research design, engaging farmers in research and presenting research results differently to farmers.

Dairying intensification is linked to a range of freshwater impacts in Australia and New Zealand. This paper compares and contrasts water quality state, impacts and responses, highlighting coastal issues in Australia and faecal contamination concerns in New Zealand waterways. Both countries are seeking to reduce the effects of dairying on freshwaters through a varying combination of regulation and industry programs.

The pasture-based livestock industries of Australia and New Zealand are poorly positioned to judge how much economic benefit they are gaining from forage-plant improvement and to propose future priorities and targets. This paper identifies several knowledge gaps that must be filled to enable the value being delivered by forage improvement to be determined, demonstrated to farmers and increased in the future.

Diverse pastures offer benefits to pasture-based dairy systems in terms of increased forage and animal production, improved resilience and the potential to reduce nitrate leaching. The management required to maintain the diversity in the pastures may limit their application. However, the benefits of diverse pastures can be archived with only three species making their management and application simpler.

Replacement heifers are a significant cost to a dairy business, but are the foundation of genetic improvement. The development and ultimate productivity of the heifer can be broken up into phases of her life that are associated with developmental changes and are affected in different ways by nutrition. The impact of different rearing strategies on her lifetime productivity are reviewed and evaluated.

Dairy farmers in Australasia rely heavily on chemical drenches to control worms in their young stock. However, this control is threatened by the increased prevalence of worm populations that have become resistant to treatment. The identification and mitigation of risk factors for resistance is vital for the development of sustainable control methods in both countries.

Should all cows in a herd be fed the same amount of a concentrate feed during milking? While this is standard practice for many pasture-based dairy herds, the availability of computer technology for feeding and monitoring production of individual cows provides an opportunity to feed each cow according to its nutritional requirements. While evidence suggests there should be advantages with individualised concentrate feeding, this review highlights the limitations of this practice in pasture-based dairy systems and provides recommendations for future research.

Precision technology has the ability to improve the efficiency of dairy farming by measuring and managing the biological variability. This paper focuses on some work in progress developing precision technology for pasture-based dairy farms. The key performance indicator is the quantity of grass grown and utilised by the grazing dairy cow.

The transition period of the dairy cow is a time of huge challenges and if not managed successfully can cost the dairy industry millions of dollars. This review outlines the current state of knowledge regarding nutrition and performance through this critical period and highlights the challenges and responses that arise within pasture-based systems.

Both the immune system and the inflammatory response must function well for animals to remain healthy and perform optimally. Nevertheless, their combined action can have negative effects on animal health and production, with accumulating results suggesting that the activation of inflammatory reactions should be minimised. Nutrition is probably important in these processes, not only in avoiding diseases and other causes of immune-system activation, but also to avoid or attenuate the inflammatory response altogether.