The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) is vetting regulations covering dairy herd improvement services to see whether they need updating.
It follows an agreement to transfer the Livestock Improvement Corporation's core database to the industry body, Dairy New Zealand, so it's available to all dairy farmers.
The database holds genetic information gathered from herd testing, relating to calving, mating and production.
MPI says the New Zealand dairy industry has been a world leader in herd improvement, and its ability to trace the performance of the national herd through the core database has been central to that success.
Studies have shown that genetic gains through dairy herd improvement have accounted for about two thirds of the sector's productivity over the past decade.
MPI animal sector manager Inna Koning says with the process of transferring ownership of the database underway, it's an appropriate time to review the regulations to make sure they still fit the purpose.
She says the other reason for the review is the significant technological developments that have taken place in data collection methods.
"(These are) the methodologies used by herd testers for collecting milk off cows, testing the quality of that milk and then essentially inputting this information into the core database."
Ms Koning says the current regulations are quite prescriptive to control the quality of information that goes into that database.
She says technological developments mean it's timely to look at whether the regulations should become wider so that they allow the new technologies to be used for inputting the database.
Ms Koning says MPI has been working with an industry stakeholders group and is seeking feedback on the sorts of changes that could be made.
