Michelle Good heads up the Innovation team within On Farm Excellence, the team responsible for on-farm research and development projects.
Her team is responsible for understanding the pressures on farmers from a customer, consumer and regulatory perspective, and undertaking research that can help translate those pressures into practical, value-add change.
As a Co-op farmer herself, Michelle has a vested interest in helping farmers. Born and bred on a dairy farm near Kihikihi, Michelle and her husband Shaun now have their own farming business near Otorohanga, where they milk 800 cows across two dairy farms, and run an adjoining dry stock farm.
"As a farmer I'm always looking for those small tweaks that I can make to improve my farm efficiency year on year.
"In the Innovation team, we want to help farmers find those opportunities by providing them new insights that they can use to fine-tune their own business," Michelle says.
"A big focus for us is looking at ways that we can provide better insights to farmers from the information we already collect. As you may expect, a lot of our research revolves around milk and what insights we can gain through milk testing. Over the past couple of years, the team has developed tests like ZincCheck which provides an indication of a herd’s zinc protection against facial eczema (FE)."
"We’re now taking that further, to see if we can develop a cost-effective test to monitor liver damage and let farmers know when their herd has been exposed to FE. We’ve also got work underway looking at what we can tell about a herd’s diet, nutrition, and mineral levels through their milk."
Another focus is coming up with better ways of collecting and validating farm information using remote sensing technology like satellite imagery.
"Farmers tell us all the time that they would like less admin and compliance, but it’s a real balancing act. The information that farmers provide supports our New Zealand provenance story and helps make the Fonterra brands and products so competitive on the world stage. Part of our remit is to look at ways we can replace having farmers fill out forms and automate the collection of information wherever possible,” says Michelle.
Some of the team’s work is also around risk mitigation - trying to anticipate what might become topical in the future.
"Right now, emissions are on everyone’s mind but because of the lag time between research and outcomes we always need to be thinking 3-5 years ahead. It’s likely that in the medium term there will be new technology that will help address some of our emissions challenges, and the focus will shift elsewhere. Our team are looking at how we can support the Fonterra business to meet future market demands around animal wellbeing assurance, biodiversity and nature.
"In addition to Fonterra’s own research the team also work extensively with others in the industry. Currently the team are working with DairyNZ and other partners on the Plantain and Low N projects. These projects are looking at how plantain and other technologies can be implemented on farm to reduce nitrogen losses to waterways and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
"Before joining Farm Source, I didn’t appreciate how many talented people there were working behind the scenes on behalf of farmers. Our wider team has an immense knowledge base and there are specialists across a range of areas that are on hand to support our farmers to evolve their businesses and maintain their world leading position."
To find out more about the work of the On Farm Excellence’s team or to access the latest Farm Insights Report, contact 0800 731 266 or visit nzfarmsource.co.nz.