Fonterra's Whareroa Wins Directors Award
Fonterra's Whareroa site took home the prestigious Directors Award at the co-op's 'Oscars of Manufacturing', while Clandeboye led the way with multiple wins at this year's Best Site Cup.
More Fonterra farmers are using cellphones to keep track of their businesses, the co-op reports.
Farmer use of information from their co-op smartphone apps has doubled in the past year.
While its Farm Source website remains popular for reporting and comparisons at month end, Fonterra mobile apps are now used more often for checking key day-to-day data. Farmer mobile apps have made 13,000 unique user downloads.
General manager operations and farmer services Evelyn Seewald says getting information to farmers faster is a priority.
"Farmers are rapid adopters of digital technology onfarm and have led the design of our apps with their feedback.... Farmers who previously swore they'd never need a smartphone now tell us they can't imagine life without it.
The apps enable farmers to access key milk production and quality information and receive business updates. And they deliver quality assurance and service data.
"Having quality and production information at their fingertips allows farmers to make timely onfarm decisions and get alerts to potential quality issues any time, anywhere."
Fonterra has three apps available for download for its farmers or users nominated by farmers: a milk production and quality app (2014), a news app (2015) and a monthly plant check app now being piloted.
Apps — the details
Three apps are available to co-op farmers or their nominees:
· The On Farm app provides farmers with key milk production and quality information and allows them to update their milk collection times
· The My Co-op app gives co-op news and financial information, and Farm Source Store rewards and offers
· The Monthly Plant Check app, being piloted this season, will transform a task previously done using a paper manual.
New Zealand dairy farmers are set to be the first in the world to receive access to a new digital physical milk pricing tool that enables them to fix the price for their physical milk.
State farmer Pāmu is opening its farm gates this summer in an effort to give the rural sector the opportunity to see how large-scale, multi-system farming is delivering productivity and profitability across New Zealand.
A five-year study has found that the cost of reducing emissions without technology may be significant and unsustainable for Northland dairy farmers.
DairyNZ says Waikato farmers need certainty on Plan Change 1, but they say that certainty must be matched with practical, workable rules and a clear transition that doesn't get ahead of the new resource management system currently under review.
While the Government has moved quickly to make commercial hauliers' lot easier during the current fuel crisis, they appear to be stuck in the creep box when it comes to the agricultural industry.
Waikato farmers have been told that the Government’s new planning system legislation and the region’s Plan Change 1 (PC1) “won’t mesh together very well”.
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