ANNUAL INSIGHTS THE YEAR 4 REPORT ON FARM IQ FOR FARMERS AND INTERESTED PARTIES

Transcription

1 ANNUAL INSIGHTS THE YEAR 4 REPORT ON FARM IQ FOR FARMERS AND INTERESTED PARTIES

2 4 OVERVIEW PRODUCT 6 DEVELOPMENT 8 PROCESSING FEEDBACK FARM IQ AIMS TO CREATE SOMETHING THAT DOESN T CURRENTLY EXIST: A DEMAND-DRIVEN, INTEGRATED VALUE CHAIN FOR NEW ZEALAND RED MEAT. FARM IQ IS BRINGING FARMERS AND CONSUMERS TOGETHER FARMERS Farmers understand how to produce animals that meet consumer preferences and receive payments based on meat quality. CONSUMERS Consumers are offered premium-branded red meat that consistently meets their eating quality preferences. 2

3 FARMER INSIGHTS GENETICS FARM IQ SYSTEM FARM PERFORMANCE FARMER INSIGHTS THE FARM IQ PROGRAMME PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT Extensive market testing is providing better insight into consumer preferences. PROCESSING FEEDBACK Electronic tracking and extensive measurement in plants is providing data on key parameters and supporting process improvement. FARM IQ SYSTEM New tools integrate data from all sources to support farm decision making. FARM PERFORMANCE Best-practice production systems using data capture and analysis to better align with the value chain, are being developed. GENETICS Advanced genomics techniques are being used to help farmers select breeding animals with the best meat eating quality traits. 3

4 OVERVIEW THE CHAIN IS LINKED UP Welcome to the fourth Farm IQ Insights report. We are pleased to report that the Farm IQ programme has made significant progress during the past year. We passed the halfway point of the Farm IQ programme s seven-year term this past year and we re starting to see many parts of our work come to fruition. A highlight was the achievement of a fully integrated plate-to-pasture system for the first time. In October 2013, Silver Fern Farms started using its new beef quality grading and payment system. This was developed as a result of work completed in the Farm IQ programme, including extensive consumer testing here and overseas. Shortly after, the company tested new consumer-packaged beef ranges in New Zealand and in selected overseas markets, underpinned by the science-based grading system. Also, importantly for farmers, Silver Farn Farms started paying premiums of around 25 a kilo for beef animals that make the grade and are accepted into premium programmes. And, we started presenting BeefEQ carcass performance reporting through the Farm IQ System. This information is presented through an interactive dashboard, with seven grading attributes and five on-farm categories. Farmers can see the detail of meat quality through the Farm IQ System and relate it to what they did on the farm. It enables them to drill down to get a better understanding of the links between their farm management decisions, such as genetics and feeding, and their success in producing premium animals. There it is consumer information going through a grading and payment system back to farmers. The value chain has been linked up and everyone in the chain benefits. Meanwhile, all the core functions of the Farm IQ System are ready for a significant upgrade to occur early in the coming year, and the commercial release will start soon afterward. Also, the genetics work is delivering new technology that sheep breeders can use to select the best meat production genetics. These are powerful new tools and we look forward this coming year to seeing how farmers get them working for their farm businesses. Alison Paterson, Chairperson and Collier Isaacs, Chief Executive There it is consumer information through a grading and payment system back to farmers. Supplying farmers can now see the detail of meat quality and yield through the Farm IQ System and relate it to what they did on the farm. 4

5 SOME HIGHLIGHTS OF THE YEAR TO JUNE 2014 ARE: > End-to-end integrated value chain for beef operational, with market launches of cuts backed by the Beef Eating Quality System, and premium payments and information being fed back to supplying farmers > Electronic tracking systems installed through all the Silver Fern Farms plants, enabling the capture of quality and yield information for cattle, deer, sheep. > Farm IQ System core function development completed and ready for commercial launch > Farm IQ System commercial offer and pricing strategy completed, based on five packs > All Landcorp farms live on the Farm IQ System in May and positive feedback > 10,000 individual sheep genotyped using the high-density chip and predictions developed for several meat quality traits > Locations of sheep genes for several meat quality traits identified > Two further IQ Farms set up, bringing the total to 11. Farm IQ Business Manager Jake Perry and Chairperson Alison Paterson with Te Kuiti farmers Karen and William Oliver. 5

6 PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT MARKET UNDERSTANDING Product development activities this year have provided valuable understanding of the premium value chain. In-market capability is leading to an encouraging maturing of this project. To develop an integrated value chain, it is essential to understand and identify segments in markets that are willing and able to pay a premium for quality products. Market Development Managers are now testing new market channels with customers in the Asian and Middle Eastern markets. They have been involved in strategic analysis, customer and market research, new product development and market prototyping initiatives leading up to launch of premium product ranges in these key strategic markets. They are continuing to investigate customer and consumer willingness to purchase on quality. This builds on the development of the Silver Fern Farms Eating Quality System from the Beef EQ project last year, and the creation of the new beef retail range. Following market research, we see continued growth in demand in China and the United States for our grass-fed, sustainable beef offering. Our Eating Quality offering is also sparking new demand from customers servicing the high-end Food Service sector in the US, South Korea, China, Singapore, Middle East, Europe and in our New Zealand test market. Trials in the US last year with in-market partner Marx foods have laid out a blueprint for engagement in Asia and the Middle East in particular. Market Development Managers are actively engaging with chefs, restaurants and consumers. The Marx trials showed the importance of choosing partners who understand the integrated nature of our strategy and who can communicate the brand story effectively to consumers. It is when consumers believe there is value in the grass-fed, natural attributes of our red meat that they are prepared to pay price premiums. In China we are using the US blueprint with our in-market partner NZ Focus. The key difference in the approach there is in the use of e-commerce channels to the consumer. China is an increasingly sophisticated market - it is the world s largest e-commerce market by value and penetration - and is growing fast. E-commerce sales of food are being trialled with encouraging results, following market research and smallscale testing in Shanghai. In one test, during a 10-minute appearance on a Shanghai-based TV shopping channel, 2.5 tonnes of beef products were sold direct to consumers. The first container of New Zealandbranded and packaged retail product has been dispatched to be sold through this channel. The lamb retail packs are in frozen form; otherwise they are exactly the same as the retail pack products sold in New Zealand right down to the English language packaging. Market insights showed authenticity of produce is a key concern of Chinese consumers. This is especially the case at the top end of the market where the retail packs are aimed. 6

7 REPORT FROM GRANT HOWIE This is the first time a New Zealand company has sold a red meat retail range online to high-end consumers in Shanghai, or indeed China. This is a step away from our traditional commodity offerings and a step up the value chain in this market. Crucially it is testing a core objective of this project. Retail beef lines are now a proven concept in New Zealand following the launch of the aged beef range in March, and we are now progressing opportunities for them in China with high-end consumers via e-commerce and high-end supermarket channels. There are five cuts in the range: a Tenderloin Eye Fillet, Porterhouse steaks, Beef Medallions, Beef Prime-Cut Roast and Beef Stir-fry. These are aged for 21 days. Each cut is vacuum-packed to seal in juiciness and flavour and to allow the beef to age and tenderise in a consumer s fridge for up to 30 days a process which involved extensive testing to refine. The retail beef range carries an Eating Quality (EQ) Master Grade on all packaging. Educating consumers on the process has been a learning experience, but research suggests consumers understand the science-backed nature of the system and trust the quality offering. With beef consumption four times per capita greater than lamb, the retail beef segment is where we expect to see growth in the New Zealand market. The consumer-led strategic planning being undertaken has unearthed opportunities with HORECA (hotel, restaurant and café) customers in India and the Middle East. These are opportunities to widen our offering from traditional frozen commodity product lines to chilled branded products which attract the premiums an integrated supply chain model sets out to achieve. NEW ZEALAND TEST MARKET New Zealand serves as a useful test market for new products and this has been the case for the beef retail range. The Discovery & Development Team tested packaging for the beef range, and the different look and feel from the lamb and venison ranges has found appeal with premium consumers. Research suggests consumers understand the science-backed nature of the system and trust the quality offering. 7

8 PROCESSING FEEDBACK CLOSER TRACKING AND MEASURING The Processing workstream for Farm IQ completed several proof-of-concept projects during the 2013/14 year. Carcass tracking systems are now in place. Work continues on yield and quality measurement and improvement projects. TRACKING SYSTEMS Tracking systems through all the Silver Fern Farms plants now enable the capture of quality and yield information for cattle, deer, sheep, lambs and calves. After a few teething problems systems for reading electronic identification (EID) tags are all working well, with high read rates. We can track carcasses using radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags in all sheep and venison plants, and a combination of RFID and bar codes in our beef plants. This gives us the flexibility to add more measurement and control monitoring points at low cost. As an example, water sprays are used in carcass chillers to reduce moisture loss through evaporation during the chilling process by 1-2%. In the past this has been difficult to do for sheep, lambs and calves in ovine plants as the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) requires that we monitor the weight of every carcass. Now, RFID tracking has enabled us to implement automatic, high-speed weighing systems to capture the yield improvement benefit. A 3D computer model of a lamb carcass. YIELD MEASUREMENT We have been running different cut and trace systems in two of our beef plants over the past year or so, to compare and contrast the accuracy of the two different approaches in tracking performance (that is linking each piece of meat with the carcass it came from) and yield measurement. One system is a commercial product that tracks meat cuts down a belt conveyor, while the other keeps cuts together in trays with RFID tags for tracking. Each has advantages and disadvantages that we will weigh up shortly to decide what we might want for new facilities in the future. Carcass X-ray systems are working on all lamb plants, but these only provide yield information for the three primal cuts (fores, middles and hinds) - which is of limited value to suppliers. If we can predict retail cut yields, this would be powerful information both for suppliers to improve animal value and for processors to work out the best way to cut carcasses to maximise market revenue. After several years of experimenting, we are now close to commercialisation of DEXA X-ray to predict meat, fat and bone proportions of each primal. We are working with Scott Technology in Dunedin and Murdoch University in Perth on this project and have a DEXA unit in operation at our Finegand plant near Balclutha. Predictive accuracy is looking very good when compared with CT scanning, so we plan to install another system shortly. The Auckland Bioengineering Institute at the University of Auckland is also making good progress with developing carcass modeling software for prediction of primal cuts. They are working on a dynamic 3D model of a lamb carcass that will be used for teaching, production planning and yield prediction. The main focus at the moment is to develop virtual cutting software that allows a production planner to define retail cuts on the 3D model, which they can feed into the yield prediction system. The DEXA and 3D model developments should come together in 2015 to give us a yield prediction system that is ahead of anything currently available. Also, what we have learnt from working on lamb yield prediction should help develop systems for cattle and other stock types in future. 8

9 QUALITY MEASUREMENT There is information available on the average values of minerals and vitamins in meat, but this does not show the variation from one animal to another. We have worked with AgResearch to carry out detailed testing on several muscles from 40 cattle (Angus and Friesian), 40 deer (Red and Wapiti) and 40 lambs (Romney and Merino), evenly divided into sex and age groups. While there is some variation between groups, the greatest variation is between animals within groups - a five-fold variation is common. This is likely to be mainly influenced by forage, and so there may be opportunities to enhance levels of valued nutrients through modified farming practices. Commercialisation of automated meat quality measurement systems remains an elusive goal. After several years of trying, we have ceased investment in this area and will wait on commercial developments to emerge from research and development projects overseas. In the meantime, we are using grading systems - such as the one that s part of our Beef Eating Quality (BeefEQ) system. For this our Master Graders assess prime cattle carcasses for marbling, ossification, ph, colour and other attributes, and an eating quality prediction model is applied. The BeefEQ programme for classifying high-value cuts by eating quality for New Zealand and overseas markets is now well established. QUALITY IMPROVEMENT In our meat quality improvement programme, we have concentrated on ways to improve beef eating quality. Through our BeefEQ research with Texas Tech University, we have learnt a great deal about the effect of chilling and aging on beef quality. We know that it is impossible to optimise eating quality for all beef muscles with conventional chilling, because the different hanging methods and cooling rates improve some muscles while at the same time making others worse. Various research groups around the world are working on process interventions that can be applied to muscles in hot boning plants before they go into rigor. We have done trial work on use of electrical current, stretching, rapid cooling and pressurisation. High-pressure processing is looking very promising as a method to improve meat tenderness without affecting colour, flavour or juiciness. While it may take a few years for commercial systems to become established, the beef plant of the future may be one that bones hot, with different further processing methods applied to individual muscles to optimise eating quality. Given the premium prices that can be achieved by producing meat of consistent eating quality, this could unlock more revenue from beef processing. Similar approaches with small stock such as lambs are less likely, given the small size of most individual muscles. REPORT FROM GRANT PEARSON grant.pearson@silverfernfarms.co.nz Quality measurement for lamb is a challenge because, even if equipment can be designed to predict visual quality, eating quality and shelf life, the speed of processing small stock makes it impractical. Fortunately, the variability of lamb quality seems to be less than that found in beef - mainly because of the younger age at slaughter, so we believe that the main focus needs to be on good farming and processing practices rather than individual measurement. After several years of experimenting, we are now close to commercialisation of DEXA X-ray to predict meat, fat and bone proportions of each primal. 9

10 FARMER INSIGHTS BEN ABSOLOM The Farm IQ System is helping Hawke s Bay farmer Ben Absolom manage risk in his farm business. He and wife Katie farm 910ha-effective at Rissington Station in the Hawkes Bay and have been on the System since August He sees the recording of key farm information in the System as a way of making sure it s accessible when needed. We really see benefit in the mapping system for this. Information like the water and electric fence systems are often in one person s head. But that person might be sick or move on. If the information s in the System, we can just print it off and it s all available. It s an insurance against the loss of key people. Ben got more into the Farm IQ System after the early August release, which completed all the core functions. He s put in all their fertiliser and pasture renewal information going back to 2007, is continuing to put in soil test results and has also mapped out two of the farm s five water systems. It s a rainy day job, he says. However there are a few things he d like the System to be able to do to make this easier including a range of dot sizes so he can more accurately show the location of features like troughs and pumps, and a notes function so he can add more details. With a rich and interactive farm map developing, his staff are finding new uses for it, such as measuring distances and areas. Our shepherd used it the other day to check how many breaks he had left for the heifers on an area of crop. The Farm IQ System will help with farm assurance too, he says. We used to have information like the fertiliser applications in spreadsheets or in a drawer. Now we can put it into the System, and if someone did an audit I d be comfortable with saying, Here it all is. It pays to think through how to use the System, he says. You don t want to spend a lot of time in the office on it. You have to think through what you are trying to achieve what outcomes you want. We ve set up some simple targets for the next 12 months. The only way it would fail is if we didn t enter the information. On the animal side, they run very intensive recording already in relation to stud herds, so aren t using the Farm IQ System for that - though they might in future. They re changing forages at the moment and he wants to closely watch stock weight gains through this transition. They re shifting from a Ryegrass base to new Tall Fescue varieties, which he believes will be more palatable yearround and continue to help with drought risks. He s keen to measure the pasture yield in terms of kilograms of liveweight grown per hectare rather than just dry matter production, which doesn t give the full picture, he says. We used to have information like the fertiliser applications in spreadsheets or in a drawer. Now we can put it into the System, and if someone did an audit I d be comfortable with saying, Here it all is. 10

11 BEN TOSSWILL It s not until you start using the Farm IQ System, that you start to realise the full capability of it, says Hawke s Bay farmer Ben Tosswill. He and wife Libby took over the 780-hectare effective family farm Birch Hills at Porangahau five years ago, and he was looking for an efficient farm information system. They have been with Farm IQ since August On the recording side, Ben s putting in animal health treatments, fertiliser applications and sheep life data and weights. Aside from using Farmax for feed budgeting, it s the sole recording method for the farm now replacing spreadsheets. It brings the farm information into one place, one system. The Farm IQ System s real strength is the power to develop reports around any type of farm information, Ben says. And it presents a challenge to farmers: You need to think through what you want to achieve. The key thing is using the information to drive profitability - and not just recording for the sake of it. They re EID tagging ewe lambs at docking each year now, and he ll use the Farm IQ System to develop drafting criteria for ewe lamb replacements. Traditionally selection s been based on the size of the animal and things the farmer doesn t like, like colour, and then the farmer gets them up to weight to go to the ram. But a lot of the smaller ones were born as twins and triplets so they ve got genetics for fecundity. If you identify them at docking you can include birth rank as a drafting criteria and then put them on crop to get them up to weight, if required, before the ram goes out. This year I sold some of the smaller ones to a friend, he grew them out on a crop and got phenomenal results. It showed the potential my flock has if they are fed well. They say it s 70% feeding and 30% genetics. It s about pushing the flock to the next level once you see that potential. At docking they note the gender, birth rank and dam age (mixed-age or 2-tooth). The first weight is recorded at weaning, then two to three weeks prior to the ram joining. Also, trade lambs not killed at weaning will receive an EID tag and are weighed on and off crops. Based on these weight recordings, the System will show growth rates. We can then select drafting criteria to identify those lambs. If they don t grow fast enough they ll go back onto grass. They re just getting into cropping and have 40ha going into Plantain and a mix of Red and White Clover. It s about driving ewe hogget lambing performance. Where we are with the summer dry and shale soils that can dry off quickly we have to get a lot of lambs off prime at weaning. The mixed-age ewes average 70% lambs prime off mum and we want to achieve the same with the hoggets. We ll compare groups on the System to see the difference in growth rates and if it s worthwhile. He also really likes the mapping. Farm IQ has taken mapping to the next level. The Farm IQ System encompasses everything it s all in one place so you don t need a lot of passwords I ve been using the Farm IQ System for planning fencing and extending the water system An idea might come up and I ll whip back to the map and have a look. Ben s been spending about one or two hours a week on the desktop plugging in recorded information. But with broadband and mobile coverage in their area now, he is getting a smartphone and will use the Farm IQ phone app. You ll be able to work in real time. Then you will be able to do other things in the evening rather than admin. He s keen to see a commitment to evolve the Farm IQ System. It does need to keep developing so that users can do more to make it fit their own farming system and how they operate. 11

12 GENETICS NEW TOOLS FOR BREEDERS The results of the Farm IQ genetics research workstream are now emerging, and the challenge for the next three years is to test and implement the results in the meat industry. FOUR PHASES The Genetics workstream aims to deliver high-quality genetic and genomic breeding value predictions for growth, meat yield and especially eating quality in terminal sheep sire flocks - that is sires that are used to produce lambs for finishing. There really has been no real selection for meat quality in New Zealand sheep before. Lamb is a premium-priced product and should be a good eating experience. That hasn t really been guaranteed before and that s the target. This work has concentrated on terminal sire breeds that make up around 80 percent of the leading industry sires. It consists of four separate and overlapping phases. HD CHIPS The first phase was to DNA-sequence around 100 sheep and use that information to design and build a high-density single nucleotide polymorphism (HD SNP) chip capable of probing 600,000 DNA variants across the sheep genome. The design was enriched by including variants predicted to affect the function of genes as well. This was completed in May Shannon Clarke (left) and John McEwan, the leaders of the Farm IQ Genetics project, with the DNA sequencer. The HD chips have since been used not only for other aspects of this workstream, but also separately to accelerate research by Beef + Lamb New Zealand Genetics on dual-purpose traits affecting on-farm productivity and research by the Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium and the Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre (PGgRc-NZAGRC) investigating the genetics governing sheep methane emissions. TRAITS INVESTIGATED The second phase is to identify and measure eating quality and carcass yield traits in progeny of terminal sires. By the end of June 2014 we had measured more than 15,000 animals from 722 sires, well on the way to the planned 20,000 animals. These animals are being processed through Silver Fern Farms plants and we are utilising their system of automatically tracking carcasses based on the use of electronic identification (EID). Indicators of eating quality such as meat tenderness, ph, marbling, colour and colour stability have been measured. The researchers have been working with 11 New Zealand flocks that produce Texel terminal sires or composite-type genetics derived from the Suffolk, Texel, and Poll Dorset breeds; most of them part of the Focus Genetics network. GENOTYPING INDIVIDUALS In the third phase, around 10,000 of these animals have been genotyped with the HD SNP chip which means that the reference sequence on the chip has been used to understand these animals individual genetic make-up. The interim results are extremely interesting and encouraging. 12

13 The results to date show that all the traits are heritable, that is, transmissible from parent to offspring through genetics. The meat quality traits have proved to be particularly heritable, suggesting that significant changes can be made rapidly to meat colour, marbling and tenderness given that these traits also display considerable variation. The work has also shown that a significant proportion of the genetic variation is controlled by a few genes, especially in the case of meat tenderness, marbling and colour. This suggests that these results may be able to be applied generally across all sheep breeds. Finally, for the terminal sire breeds that were examined it has been possible to predict with reasonable accuracy, on the basis of DNA testing alone, the breeding values for these meat quality traits. The breeding value accuracies achieved are equivalent to the potential sire animal being killed and tested for the actual trait. This means that the generation interval can now be shortened, as accurate breeding values for meat quality traits can be available for terminal sire ram lambs at weaning. Also, it makes it commercially viable to improve eating quality through genetics, which was not the case previously because of the requirement for expensive progeny testing. The enhanced genomics techniques may also help address the situation where intense selection for growth and meat yield in terminal sires can be accompanied by unfavourable trends in meat quality. A Primera ram from Focus Genetics. TESTING IN COMMERCIAL FLOCKS The final phase is to test these results in commercial terminal sire breeding flocks to ensure the system is accurate, practical and cost-effective. This will begin in the coming year. This wider testing is being assisted by the development of a much lower cost SNP chip that essentially contains all the information of the high-density SNP chip but is more practical to use as part of an expanded parentage test. A group of breeders will use the chip to assess their weaner ram lamb crop in early This work complements other approaches to improve eating quality, including enhanced pre and post slaughter management. REPORT FROM JOHN McEWAN john.mcewan@agresearch.co.nz The meat quality traits have proved to be particularly heritable, suggesting that significant changes can be made rapidly to meat colour, marbling and tenderness given that these traits also display considerable variation. 13

14 FARM IQ SYSTEM A BIG YEAR Development of the Farm IQ farm management system has taken huge strides in the past year, with versions 2, 3 and 4 of the product being completed and released to a large group of farmers for trial and feedback. Version 5 was also completed and moving into final testing as the year ended, ahead of release in August This version presented the full range of core functions that a typical livestock farmer would need, and it was therefore decided to offer the Farm IQ System to a wider group of farmers on a commercial basis at this point. What farmers will see is a comprehensive farm management system with strong value chain links, capable of storing, analysing and reporting on a wide range of farm activities. We have invested significant effort to make data entry easy and to develop an extensive reports centre from which valuable information can be extracted just as easily. Importantly, our development efficiency levels have continued to increase, effectively reducing the cost of development and increasing the volume of functionality we obtain from each dollar invested. Farmer feedback has played a crucial role in how the System has evolved. To assist with this, we have co-located our training and support team alongside the IT development team. This placed subject matter expertise directly into the development environment and ensured developers were close to the feedback being obtained through the support desk. A common theme of feedback through the development phases this past year was that the System was complicated. However investigation identified that it was the range of functionality available that appeared to make it tricky if a farmer was focused on getting a specific outcome. In response to this feedback, the fifth release of the System was built to be presented as a suite of Packs. For those farmers who want to use the full range of functionality the complete System is still available (called The Lot ), but we have also created four more focused versions to meet farmers specific interests. For the first four Packs, it s possible for a user to upgrade fairly easily to one with more features. The Farm IQ System is now a fully functional and commercial product. The major development is now completed, though we will of course add further enhancements. The focus is now on farmer uptake, and from this point, proposed enhancements will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis to assess the development cost versus the benefit to customers and to Farm IQ. MOBILE TECH FARMING ON THE GO We know that farmers don t usually want to spend more time in the office. For example, they don t want to come home after a long, hard day and enter data into a computer system. With this in mind, we have now turned our attention to implementing our strategy to make it easy for farmers to record data in the paddock so when they re at the keyboard they can focus on running reports. FARM IQ SYSTEM PACKS A Pack to get you started Manage your animals for profitable production The Animal Pack with even more value Manage your land for profitable and sustainable production The complete System that gives you the full picture 14

15 Our mobile app, initially developed to transfer EID numbers and animal weights from indicators into the Farm IQ system, has steadily expanded and now enables a range of other information such as mob moves, health treatments, deaths and pasture covers to be captured in real time, as well as access to your farm calendar and the uploading of life data from indicators. Plans for the near future include enabling sales, sending to grazing and rainfall to be recorded and an iphone version to compliment the existing Android App. MAKING DATA WORK HARDER Farm IQ has been in discussion with several providers of other rural software solutions and products to investigate how we can work together to enable sharing of data. These would meet a common request from Farm IQ System users for single entry of farm information for a range of purposes, which would save time and help with accuracy. Data exchange will take various forms, but primarily fall into one of the following categories: > Automated upload of data that previously had to be manually recorded, eg soil test results or fertiliser application Over the past year we have worked as part of the Dairy Industry Network Data Standards initiative to support the development of a pastoral sector (dairy and red meat) data standard to facilitate the exchange of data. We have also worked with indicator manufacturers to assist their development of an XML standard for data transfer to and from indicators and wands. Farm IQ will commence introduction of both sets of standards into its System next year. SUPPORTING CUSTOMERS In the past year we have trained and supported the large group of farmers who have been trialling the Farm IQ System. During this time we have identified the most effective way to deliver System training and refined our training courses to ensure farmers leave with the necessary knowledge to implement the seasonal plan they have developed with their Farm IQ Business Manager. The Farm IQ System is now a leading farm management software solution that offers farmers the opportunity to increase understanding of their land and animal production and gain insights into how to usefully change on-farm practices. REPORT FROM MARK JOHNSTONE markjohnstone@farmiq.co.nz > The supply of data to third parties, eg for financial budgeting > Possible interchange of planning and forecasting data, eg financial and feed budgeting. We anticipate a number of these integrations occurring during the coming year. What farmers will see is a comprehensive farm management system with strong value chain links, capable of storing, analysing and reporting on a wide range of farm activities. 15

16 FARM PERFORMANCE A NEW TOOL FOR FARMERS Running a farm is all about information, and helping farmers get good, timely and relevant information is a key focus for Farm IQ. It has been very interesting this year to work with the developing Farm IQ System. This is a commercial software product that will act as a one-stop, integrated farm database. The Farm IQ Farm Systems team, along with groups of farmers, has worked with the developers to make sure that the System will work for commercial farmers. Developing the System has been a complex process. It has been clear that while the pilot showed us the direction, there were no short-cuts to building the full system. The first challenge we encountered was building a database that was capable of managing and storing all the data for this whole-of-farm system. Then we addressed the need for shared standards to develop a common language that all farmers could use. Then, we ve had to be patient while first the inputting and then later the reporting capabilities were built. As the build continues, we will keep pushing to make data input easier and to develop better reporting. We also want calculators that farmers can use to run through scenarios. During the past year, the value of Farm IQ as an information hub has become clearer. All the time more farm software options are becoming available for farmers, and some do specific things well. But it s Farm IQ that brings the whole picture together. This coming year, Farm IQ will be able to build the integration with the other farm software. Then, farmers will only have to enter a specific piece of farm information once and it will be available for use through all linked software. Farm IQ Business Manager Jake Perry discusses the Farm IQ System with Te Kuiti farmer William Oliver. We recognise there are still practical barriers for farmers as they grapple with the rationale for investing more time and resource into capturing farm information. It s good to see some farmers getting stuck in and showing the way. BeefEQ has given farmers the opportunity to submit animals for premium programmes and receive high-quality reporting back through the Farm IQ System, as well as premium payments. It is interesting to note that about 30% of submitted animals are making the grade at this point which means 70% are not. But the supplying farmers will be able to have a good look at the information about the ones that did and didn t and make adjustments accordingly. It is really up to farmers and their advisers to take this tool now and run with it. This is for the good of individuals and also for the good of the red meat industry as a whole. BUSINESS MANAGERS There are now five Farm IQ business managers: three in the North Island and two in the South Island, and these are key contacts for farmers. (There has been some personnel change, and it s good to see capable people step up to get involved.) This team has moved into a new phase this year - as the Farm IQ System has progressed towards completion of the core functions, we have been working far more with the System and helping farmers make the most of it. 16

17 A large part of our focus this coming year will be getting farmers signed up to annual subscriptions, working closely with the Marketing team. Helping farmers plan what outcomes they want to achieve and how they should use the System to help get there is also important to ensure farmers get value from their investment and the time they spend on it, and that Farm IQ keeps getting valuable feedback. We have to make sure that this is not seen as just recording farm information - but that it is done to achieve meaningful outcomes for the operation of the farm and for the farm business. This might be to build up a good record of things like fertiliser and chemical applications and animal health treatments for farm assurance purposes, or to enable analysis to drive farm performance. IQ FARMS Meanwhile, we ve now got another two IQ farms up and running giving us a total of 11 demonstration farms. We are also working closely with some beef trial farms. They represent a good cross-section of commercial farms two of them run by education institutions. Each IQ farm is hosting an annual field day, and they are also running two workshops a year that have proven to be very useful. The IQ farms, too, are now shifting to more of a focus on how to use the Farm IQ System for measuring and monitoring. In our work with farmers, it is also clear that information is valuable to the whole farm team including advisers. We have had key farm advisers such as vets and management consultants in the steering groups for our IQ farms. This has given them a valuable insight into how the Farm IQ System can help them to work with their farmer clients, and this needs to be explored further this coming year. It s been good to see farm owners or managers getting their staff working the System as well. EID TAGGING During the past year, the System has been further developed to handle both animals that are EID tagged and animals that are not. EID tagging enables management of stock as individuals and this means more close management. Information is built up about an animal over time, so the farmer taps into a more full history. It s then possible to confidently identify leading performers or under-performers and manage them accordingly. Some farmers have been using the individual information to more effectively allocate feed, for example. As EID tagging for sheep is not mandatory, farmers have the choice of tagging a sample of their stock or specific stock classes, rather than all animals. Without tags, farmers are dealing with averages and trends and making more reflective decisions but that may suit their operation. We re also finding differences in farmers awareness of what drives their farm s financial situation. Some rely on the accountant or their bank manager to sort it all out and review it at the end of the year. We re coming across others who track things as they go along so they understand what s happening and can make decisions earlier. These are more active managers which means they can take advantage of opportunities more quickly or correct something that s going off in the wrong direction. We have to make sure that this is not seen as just recording farm information - but that it is done to achieve meaningful outcomes for the operation of the farm and for the farm business. REPORT FROM GREG McSKIMMING gregmcskimming@farmiq.co.nz IQ FARM FIELD DAYS: Handouts from the IQ farm field days are available from the Farm IQ website (see the Findings to date section of each IQ farm s webpage). 17

18 FARMER INSIGHTS FRASER AVERY Like many farmers, Fraser Avery would like to farm the perfect sheep. That s not something he expects to find overnight but he s willing to do comparisons and fine-tuning to head in the right direction. During 13 years on the family farm 1500ha Bonavaree in Marlborough, Fraser and his wife Shelley have been progressively taking over the running of it. The Averys got involved with Farm IQ at the beginning of the pilot phase for the farm management system. Fraser likes to work with farm software, having been on the Farmax feed budgeting system for several years, and he sees how the Farm IQ System will fit: It s a hugely useful tool for overseeing and analysing a lot of what s going on, on the farm, he says. They ve been EID tagging from beginning of the programme and bought handling and reading equipment. We went all in. If I m sold on an idea, I do it and I m confident it will pay for itself. Most advances we re going to make going forward are going to be small. Technology, monitoring and recording are the only way we can actually tell. A Ravensdown guy said that anything under a 20% lift from putting nitrogen on is not noticeable by eye so you need to measure. I think most things are in that category you can t visually see them so you need to measure. Fraser is currently putting some time in to get properly set up on the Farm IQ System and then will hand it over to their stock manager, Darcy Hooper-Smith, who started there 10 months ago. The really big thing is we needed to get buy-in from our stock manager. He can see the benefit we ll get - from not doing a lot of extra work. With the programme we ve got, it hasn t been hard [to get him interested]. The Farm IQ System will help build up a record for farm assurance, he notes. It s such a big thing these days, and there s a lot of work involved. With this, you have everything in one place. You can look at a report, and it s all there. You can just go and look at it when you re here on the farm or anywhere in the world. And it s efficient: It will take out a lot of double handling. You will be able to put things in as you go. Using the phone app, you can put in an animal health treatment straight away, or a chemical application or doing mob shifts. Fraser says he s fairly happy with their stock and pasture, but wants to keep lifting performance. I have lots of things I m constantly looking at... We do quite a bit of cropping. We grow a lot of Lucerne now, and we re doing a trial of feeding some ewes barley with that from Advantage feeders. We re also comparing a Lucerne/grass mix with straight Lucerne. We re recording mob shifts. We don t have to but it appeals. Then we can look at different stocking rates for the paddocks, and pasture types. We can really break things down. We have had a lot of unexplained deaths on the Lucerne, which annoys me so we ve tried all sorts of things. This year we are doing a little trial with the hoggets: we ve injected some with vitamin A, D and E and we ll compare them and their lambs right through with ones that didn t get it. With EID, we can already see that those hoggets scanned 10% better than the others. It s a hugely useful tool for overseeing and analysing a lot of what s going on, on the farm. 18

19 SAM BUNNY Everything that happens on Rangitaiki Station in central North Island is being recorded and analysed in the Farm IQ System. That s quite a statement for a breeding, finishing and stud operation that runs 80,000 stock units of sheep, cattle and deer on 8300ha effective. They breed and finish their own progeny as well as doing some trading beef and dairy grazing. Along with all the Landcorp properties, Rangitaiki shifted to the Farm IQ System in May It s a good asset to our farm, says Rangitaiki manager Sam Bunny. I m a huge fan. It s one place to record everything and it produces lots of reports that s what I really like about it. It s quite simple, too. Whoever has done it has done a good job... Most of my guys find it easy to navigate through. He s finding his staff don t have to spend too much time wasting time in the office with it, either. Seven Rangitaiki staff are using the System. This includes our four block managers who each use it for the animals on their own block they are doing births, weaning, scanning and recording weights, sales and purchases and animal health treatments. The real challenge for us is the EID side of it, he says. Rangitaiki has electronic ID (EID) on all the cattle and deer, he reports. This allows us to individually monitor the animals performance and track things like weight gain. For sheep information, they will still work with mobs and mob averages. With the EID, they have had teething troubles, for example, with organising the right format to get the information into the System. When it comes to recording events with EID one of the big concerns is mis-reads on the equipment. Re-working can add extra cost to the process. I m a huge fan. It s one place to record everything, and it produces lots of reports that s what I really like about it. EID equipment such as wands and reader panels are improving and will assist accuracy. Going forward, we will get a start weight at weaning against their EID tag number in the System and then away we go. Every time they are weighed that information will be matched back with the EID and their existing record in the Farm IQ System. Sam and wife Christina who does admin, run the mapping side. Prior to the Farm IQ System, we had maps and papers everywhere. We do a lot of spraying, a lot of cultivation, cropping and re-grassing and we ve got a major fertiliser programme. That s all being recorded into the map on the Farm IQ System. For the paddocks we re putting in records going back to 2007 the pasture species, cropping and so on. We also take monthly pasture measurements with a sward stick. It s a really good system for recording. There is reticulated water over the whole farm and we are just starting to map the water system as another layer. The water system has been gradually put in over the last 40 years ago and some of it is very difficult to find now. Their aim now is to have every part of the water system, including troughs and pumps, recorded in the Farm IQ System with GPS locations. Sam likes the fact that improvements will continue to be made to the Farm IQ System. We can talk about what is good and what is not and they can make changes where necessary. That s a really positive thing. 19

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