Economic Survey provides insight into dairy farm performance – DairyNZ DairyNZ’s latest Economic Survey 2018-19 shows dairy farmers had a reasonable year for operating profit and milk production, but farmers face a number of challenges – making cost control a key driver to help buffer dairy businesses against variable milk prices. The annual Economic Survey analyses a representative sample of owner-operator and herd-owning sharemilking farms (50:50 sharemilkers) across New Zealand.