The report uses the information farmers provide in their Farm Dairy Records, alongside information on milk quality and production held by Fonterra, to provide insights into what is happening on their farms. Included metrics highlight risks and opportunities that may exist in the farming system, helping improve efficiency and reduce impact.
Optimisation
For the first time this year, a new page provides insights on how efficiently farms are growing pasture from the nitrogen fertiliser being applied. There are a lot of factors that influence fertiliser efficiency and some of these are directly under farmer control. When you're more efficient with fertiliser you reduce the environmental impact and your operating costs, while still maintaining productivity.
The new section of the report will help to identify whether you can grow the same pasture from less fertiliser. While developing this insight, Environmental Programme Lead Kirsti Lovie tested it with farmers and says they found the scatterplot most interesting, as it outlined the actual performance of farmers in their local area, so could easily see how it related to them.
The insights show a quantified impact on the farming business, looking specifically at surplus, emissions and spend. The insights page shows what t n factors on-farm need to be investigated to improve efficiency.
Contact your local Sustainable Dairying Advisor to find out more.
Greenhouse gas emissions
From this season, each farm will have a greenhouse gas emissions assessment that includes total emissions broken down into biological and non-biological sources on a per-kilogram-of-milk-solids basis. The biological emissions are further broken down into methane emissions and nitrous oxide emissions.
Non-biological emissions consider the Supply Number: emissions of inputs in the farming system such as other fertiliser, supplements, fuel and electricity generation. These emmisions have been reported separately as they come from different sources and act differently in the atmosphere.
At the bottom of the emissions page, there is a display of the farm's total greenhouse gases emitted on a per kilogram of milk solids basis and illustrates where the farm sits in relation to others in their benchmark group. This shows how efficient the farm is in producing milk solids relative to greenhouse gas emissions.
This year, as part of the emissions section of the report, there is information on sequestration and guidance of how much carbon can be removed from the atmosphere from different vegetation on farm.
Milk quality
The milk quality part of the report is split into two; one focusing on somatic cell count and one on milking efficiency. The somatic cell count page benchmarks farms against others within the same region based on their average seasonal somatic cell count for the season. Using industry research and calculators, information is provided that highlights the potential production and financial value of the farm reducing its somatic cell count.
The next section shows the farm's specific milking efficiency insights. The farm's current milking time performance is calculated using information from the milk vat monitoring systems, farm dairy assessments, farm dairy records and milk collections, along with its potential performance, based on industry research by DairyNZ. This section of the report highlights the time savings the farm could achieve if operating at optimum efficiency, and benchmarks its performance against similar shed types and sizes.
Animals
This covers the impacts of heat stress, mastitis and lameness on animal well-being. Using farm-specific weather data for the 21/22 season provided by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd (NIWA) and modelling by Agresearch and DairyNZ, the farm's unmitigated impact of heat stress is represented through the loss of milk solids. New for this year are national maps depicting the changes in heat stress by region over the past three seasons.
The final part of the animals section highlights the farm's incidence of lameness and mastitis and benchmarks the farms against all other farms in the co-op. Again, a value is estimated on the impact both conditions have on the farm business.
The Farm Insights Reports aim to give farmers additional information, using information already being provided or collected. These reports are a great starting point for any farmer looking to understand potential opportunities and provide a discussion starter with your Farm Source team or rural professional.
The Farm Insights Report is available in the member section of the Farm Source website.