Grass-fed farm animals are New Zealand's natural advantage
New Zealand has a temperate climate – with lots of rain and sunshine. It's a great climate for growing grass. And it means our ruminant farm animals live and graze on grass outdoors year-round. This is unlike most other countries, where animals may spend much of the year indoors, eating grain-based feed. Grass-based farming systems are New Zealand’s natural advantage. They have been honed over many years of research, innovation, and application.
We know that some customers are becoming more interested in understanding how their food is produced. Consumers increasingly seek our grass-fed animal products for:
- their health benefits
- the positive environmental impact of pasture-based farming systems in supporting soil health and biodiversity
- ethical concerns, including animal welfare and natural feeding practices.
Defining "grass-fed" for New Zealand
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has worked with the dairy and red meat sectors to develop the New Zealand grass-fed administrative standards. The standards define what it means for animals to be considered "grass-fed" in New Zealand. The standards:
- are a way to give Government recognition to farming systems that meet those standards
- give our global customers confidence in the quality of our dairy and red meat products
- spell out the comprehensive criteria for dairy and meat animals to be considered grass-fed.
There are 2 administrative standards – one for dairy animals and one for meat animals. Both are voluntary to use.
The definition of grass-fed includes the food animals have available to them and how much time they have access to pasture.
The administrative standards also allow for animals to be removed from pasture to safeguard them or the environment through any adverse weather events or for any other animal management requirements.
The dairy grass-fed standard criteria
- New Zealand Grass-Fed for dairy means that types of grass must make up, on average, at least 90% of the diets of dairy animals supplying the milk pool. The animals must also have access to pasture for at least 340 days of the year, for at least 8 hours per day. (A milk pool is the total volume of milk collected from a group of dairy farms, in this case, the farms operating under a particular scheme).
- New Zealand Grass-Fed for an individual dairy farmer means at least 90% of the animal’s diet is grass-fed feed types, and they can graze outside at least 340 days a year.
The New Zealand Grass-Fed Dairy Administrative Standard [PDF, 556 KB]
The meat grass-fed standard criteria
For meat-producing animals, they must be fed mostly types of grass, and graze outside year-round.
The New Zealand Grass-Fed Meat Administrative Standard [PDF, 409 KB]
One-page summaries
Summary of the Grass-Fed Dairy Administrative Standard [PDF, 1.8 MB]
Summary of the Grass-Fed Meat Administrative Standard [PDF, 1.8 MB]
Ownership and review of the standards
The New Zealand Grass-Fed Administrative Standards were released on 11 June 2025. They are owned and administered by MPI and will be reviewed at least every 3 years. MPI will publish reviews on this website.
Before publication, the dairy administrative standard was peer-reviewed by AgResearch.
AgResearch's review of the grass-fed standard [PDF, 237 KB]
