DairyNZ Farmers Forum underway
Over 300 farmers and rural professionals have gathered in Hamilton for the first DairyNZ Farmers Forum for this year.
It is likely to go live on the www.dairyatwork.co.nz website in the next week or two.
DairyNZ brand marketing manager Andrew Fraser outlined the initiative to international journalists at a recent conference in Hamilton.
"We thought 'let's see if we can tell our economic story in dairying and make it a good visual experience that we can share on line'.
"We created a data visualisation tool... It has an image of the world which shows where all our exports go. We can click on, for instance, Bahrain, or any country we export to, and it comes up with all the details of our dairy exports, history, percentage or our exports, what we export there, etc.
"Because you've got the picture and the words it brings the story to life. It is also a bit of a geography lesson.
"We have created a way of telling that dairy export story that is a lot more visual than giving someone a sheet of paper and tables."
It also tells the story of dairy farming in NZ with, for instance, a breakdown of the herds and production for each region.
"We have used leading-edge data visualisation tools to help tell our dairy story."
Dairy 3D will be used as an education tool. Teachers are difficult to reach because they are so busy, says Fraser.
"So if you've got something that's cool and engaging, it is a lot easier for them to say 'ok I'll teach that, because that resource is going to make it easier to teach this topic'."
They aimed for broad reach but targeted it at school children to get the traffic to the site. Just putting up a web resource is not enough to drive traffic there.
"To get enduring value from our investment we will be developing educational resources which present the website as where they need to go to find the information."
The target is at first the 13-15 age group but more resources will be developed older children.
Teachers can use 3D Dairy in various subjects, eg economics and maths. For instance they could use the figures as calculation tools.
The site will be component of DairyNZ's education programme which seeks to improve public perception and increase the understanding of dairy.
Fraser says NZ dairy farmers care about public perceptions for several reasons.
Public policy makers are influenced by public opinion so it is important they hear the full story rather than just the vocal minority. They want a positive image for the products and dairy farmers want to be good community citizens.
"It's the communication challenge we have... dairying is a big part of our economy but people don't connect their standard of living to our export industries," he said.
Urban people are too busy with their lives to think about farming. But if their children talk about it through what they are learning at school, and the next generation knows something of the importance of dairy to the economy, perceptions and understanding will broaden.
