A Waikato farm business coaching initiative has been so successful it has been extended for another three years.

The pilot profit improvement programme called Dairy Push, is a joint initiative between Fonterra, Dairy NZ and South Waikato District Council.

Intended to help dairy farmers develop a business plan and grow their bottom lines by as much as 10 per cent a year, the scheme was launched in 2007. Fifty-five farmers have been involved.

AgFirst Waikato Pastoral Consultant James Allen says overall the scheme is seen as a success.

“The extension is taking a slightly different focus to the first three years. The first three years we had a very strong focus on increasing profitability for each of the farms involved in the programme.

“The next phase is about still maintaining and increasing that profit where we can but also reducing the environmental footprint of dairy farming, we've got this dual focus going on.”

James Allen says participating farmers have increased efficiencies, reduced on-farm costs and boosted production

“On some individual farms we've had very good increases in profits, one example would be our focus farm which was already a very high performing farm, in the top quartile and we would have lifted their profits by about 10% per annum.”