The outlook for dairy farmers is generally positive, particularly in exports to Asia, according to Minister for Economic Development, Steven Joyce.

Speaking at the second day of the Farmers Forum, Steven backed the optimism with a raft of figures, and his address was followed by a detailed update from DairyNZ’s strategy and investment leader for productivity Bruce Thorrold.

They’ve also adopted a problem solving culture they call Root Cause Analysis, to accurately identify problems, and stressed that this calls for good record keeping in all areas.

From the enthusiasm shown by the two women presenters, ‘lean’ is working well for Synlait.

With the increasing variety of feed systems now being used in dairy farming, a workshop looking at the profitability being made by those using them produced some interesting results. High input systems (System 5) can, if done well, produce high profitability. Interestingly, those making the next level of profits were using all grass systems, with weekly farm walks, careful pasture management, and fewer input costs.

Those farmers who tended to work from week to week, buying in supplements at higher cost when the grass didn’t grow as expected, are making the smallest profits.

Great farm teams
With the strong need to get good people into farm work and to keep them there and progressing, it is obviously time for some coherent advice from all quarters.

The workshop on this reveals there has been a lot going on behind the scenes, and the outcomes are now becoming apparent.

DairyNZ, Federated Farmers, Primary ITO, Dairy Women’s Network and PICA are about to come out with a comprehensive skills matrix, designed around the basic premise of there being five levels of farm worker role; from farm assistant to herd manager, assistant manager, farm manager and business/operations manager for bigger enterprises.

These will have defined levels of on-farm experience, clear skill requirements (along with how to acquire these); and possibly even more important, the expected levels of supervision for each by those in charge.

Federated Farmers has also just come out with a New Employers Pack, aimed at those taking on staff for the first time. This includes a raft of information on the need for record-keeping to satisfy the requirements of the welter of Government agencies involved.

DairyNZ has a QuickStart booklet or web-based set of instructions for the first four roles.
Given the number of farmers at a forum session, who admitted to having had an employee leave without giving notice, all this information is obviously well-needed for the industry to retain good staff.

Sustainable milk plans
With water quality grabbing media headlines frequently, some assistance to farmers to recognise how they might take action to improve things is being worked on vigorously by DairyNZ.

The emphasis in the workshop is all improvements made on any farm have good effects downstream.

The Sustainable Milk Plans effort draws together what’s already been done, and tailors future tasks to individual farms.

It works through three parties working together; the farmer, his consultant and a representative from the DairyNZ team.

For drains and streams, they work out best riparian widths and plantings. To comply with the WRC Variation 6 at least one water meter will be needed.

Overall, the new system will benchmark what’s there, understand any risk, use the largely free resources and professional advice, make a plan for change, and review and update as needed. It’s called ‘taking control’.