Monday, 10 June 2024 13:25

20 years of DairyBase

Written by  Staff Reporters
DairyNZ is celebrating 20 years of DairyBase. DairyNZ is celebrating 20 years of DairyBase.

At Fieldays this week, DairyNZ will celebrate the 20th anniversary of its online platform DairyBase.

DairyBase is designed to help farmers drive profit and identify positive changes for their farm business and farmers are being encouraged to visit the DairyNZ Fieldays stand to learn how the online platform can help them better understand and enhance their farm system and business performance into the future.

“DairyBase helps farmers compare key performance indicators and determine what is working well and opportunities for improvement,” says DairyNZ head of economics Mark Storey.

“It is New Zealand’s largest and longest running dairy benchmarking service,” Storey says. “It’s a great example of DairyNZ bringing its farm systems and credible evidence-based approach together to benefit farmers.”

Storey says DairyBase is one of hundreds of tools and resources DairyNZ and predecessors Dairy InSight and Dexcel have developed on behalf of farmers over the past 20 years, adding that more are being developed.

The DairyBase online platform allows farmers who register to track their progress towards long and short-term goals, draw comparisons against other farms and keep a tight rein on farm working expenses.

Two types of benchmarking are available – the business's financial performance and the farm’s physical aspects, comparing them to industry standards or targets. Farmers receive reports based on data they provide, with both national and regional benchmarking available.

The DairyBase team will be on-hand at Fieldays to show farmers how the online platform works, including its strength in analysing farm trends over time and can show farmers where their farm may sit on regional benchmarking graphs.

Storey says that more than 20% of New Zealand dairy farmers contribute their farm and business data to DairyBase each year.

“Farmers and rural professional advisors, including accountants, can be sure the benchmark information is extremely robust, enabling confident and effective decision making,” he says.

“DairyBase is being continually improved with DairyNZ’s farm systems, economics and digital technology teams working together to deliver the best service to farmers.”

To celebrate the 20th anniversary, there is no cost to farmers to use DairyBase from 1 June 2024.

Tokoroa dairy farmer George Moss has been using DairyBase for all of its 20 years - providing his farm’s physical and financial data and using the reports to continually improve his farming operation.

"DairyBase data has been pivotal to our decision making and has driven strategy and subsequent direction of travel for our business,” Moss says.

Moss is also part of DairyNZ’s Baseline Project, an extension of DairyBase which collects more detailed environmental data from the 450 farmers involved so far. Qualified data collectors visit the Baseline farmers to help the farmers collate and input the data across physical, financial and environmental performance.

More like this

Mixed reaction to hiking levy rate

The DairyNZ board and management are currently trying to determine whether, and to what degree, their farmer levy payers will support any increase in their levy contributions.

Come and connect with us

OPINION: We're excited to connect with dairy farmers at the upcoming South Island Agricultural Field Days.

People expos set to return

Building on the success of last year's events, the opportunity to attend People Expos is back for 2025, offering farmers  the chance to be inspired and gain more tips and insights for their toolkits to support their people on farm.

Featured

Court decision a win for Southland farmers

Federated Farmers says it welcomes a recent court decision which granted a stay on rules in the Southland Water and Land Plan until legislative changes can be made by government.

National

Machinery & Products

Alpego eyes electric power harrow

Distributed by OriginAg in New Zealand, Italian manufacturer Alpego recently showed its three metre Alysium electric power harrow at the…

New seed drill tech coming

Incorporating Vaderstad's latest seed drill technology, the Proceed V 24, is said to improve precision and increase planting efficiencies for…

» Latest Print Issues Online

The Hound

Waffle man

OPINION: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon sometimes can't escape his own corporate instinct for evasion, and in what should have been…

Banks on notice

OPINION: Shane 'Matua' Jones, crusader against all things woke, including "woke banks", couldn't have scripted it better when his NZ…

» Connect with Rural News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter