The ah ha moment: The benefits of the Farm Insights Report

Dairy Farms NZ CEO Craig McBeth oversees seven farms in Canterbury and Southland and says the Farm Insights Report provides farmers with proof points of the care they take for the environment and their herds. It’s also a helpful tool for those ‘ah ha’ moments that help farmers to continually fine-tune things on-farm.

The ah ha moment

“The Farm Insights Report is full of insights and gems. Why is my N loss/surplus different? One of our sharemilkers had much better N loss measures than others and I was curious about that so I looked into the target. It turned out they had ticked a box incorrectly but it provided an ‘ah ha’ moment that I was able to share with the rest of our sharemilking team.

“It clarified there would be benefits in putting on a little nitrogen fertiliser more often than it would be putting a big dollop of fertiliser on just because it was dry enough to get the truck around the farm one day. Each insight and ‘ah ha’ moment will be different for different farmers. Some insights will resonate more with some than others.

“It sounds obvious now, but these are the things we’re constantly learning over time in farming.

“But learning is hard work. You really have to go after it and apply yourself over time. It doesn’t happen through one conversation, or on one day.”

“The Farm Insights Report is full of insights and gems,” says Dairy Farms NZ CEO Craig McBeth.

Think on it

Craig says farmers can be overwhelmed and potentially cynical about reports and data, “but they all will tend to go away and think on the information.”

“They’ll go to the pub or watch their kids playing footy on Saturday morning and be able to talk to others on a more informed level about their farms because of the Farm Insights Report.”

The report includes the below for each farm:

• Nutrient efficiency
• Feed efficiency
• Animal efficiency
• Greenhouse gas emissions
• Water quality
• Biosecurity
• Milking efficiency

And more.