The last dairy season was among the best on record, with the country's dairy herds setting a new production record of more than 20 billion litres of milk.

The New Zealand Dairy Statistics 2013/14, released by LIC and DairyNZ today, show milk from the country's 4.92 million cows contained 1.83 billion kilograms of milk solids, worth $15.5 billion with the season's $8.47 average dairy pay out.

New Zealand's dairy cows produced on average 30 more kilograms of milk solids each last season.

DairyNZ senior economist Matthew Newman says the past season's record milk production and prices have helped put farmers in a better position to cope with the rapid decline in milk prices this season.

He says: 'Sixty-five per cent of the increase in milk production last season came from the North Island, following the drought in 2012/13, so the increase reflects greater production of milk solids per cow up 30 kilograms to 357 Kg MS/cow.

'In the South Island there has been new milk in the industry from extra cows (+103,000).

'It has all added up to a great combination for farmers – the best season many can recall.

'We had good pasture growth, a high pay out and farmers responded by making the most of the opportunity to produce a lot more milk.”

Across the country, the national herd grew by 138,600 cows (2.9 per cent) and production from each cow was up 7.2 per cent.

Genetic merit also improved, with the average cow's breeding worth and production worth increasing 14 per cent and 10 per cent respectively.

Dr Steve Harcourt, LIC commercialisation & industry relations manager, says the statistics confirm the progressive attitudes of New Zealand dairy farmers and the value of good genetics to improve productivity and prosperity.

Steve says: 'It's no accident that the increasing trend of production correlates to the increase in breeding worth.

'Around three-quarters of the national herd are sired by an LIC bull. They are bred to deliver high quality offspring that will perform and produce in New Zealand conditions, with each generation bred to be better than the last.

'Combined with the proactive attitudes of farmers, their willingness to adopt new solutions that drive efficiency gains on-farm and their ongoing commitment to the fundamentals of herd improvement – that's what has delivered this season's great results.

'It's those attitudes that will help farmers get through this season with the lower pay out, and continue to set new benchmarks in the future.”

The New Zealand Dairy Statistics document provides a review of the industry for the 2013/14 season, with statistics from the LIC database, Animal Evaluation database, NZ dairy companies, TBfree New Zealand, NZ Real Estate Institute and Statistics New Zealand.

The Dairy Statistics represent all New Zealand dairy farmers and include cow production and population, operating structures, breed breakdown, herd testing, artificial breeding, calving, milk prices, land prices and disease control.

The full document is available online at: www.lic.co.nz/publications and: www.dairyatwork.co.nz/industry