Oskar Howell: Fonterra's On Farm Services incentive programme

What's the news? 

Fonterra has announced an On Farm Services incentive programme for qualifying farmer-shareholders.  

The scheme allows farmers who meet their cooperative difference standard, a baseline performance and efficiency standard, to receive what is effectively a $1,500 yearly subsidy to invest in on-farm technology or services.  

Ranges from animal performance tools from genetics companies, as well as pasture and data optimisation tools, and on-farm planting to improve carbon sequestration.  

Pasture Management: Apps and dashboards, AI and satellite imagery to manage and optimise pasture on farms.

Data optimisation: Farmers deal with so much data flowing in through so many on-farm touchpoints, some services aggregate all that info into key insights farmers can rely on to make good decisions.  

Animal performance: Animal testing on their cows. 

  

Why it matters  

• Obviously a massive deal – this contributes so much to on-farm costs and gives farmers a comfortable buffer to experiment with more technology that could be a massive help.  
• It contributes to the trend of growing tech use on-farm by farmers.  
• In a 2023 survey by DairyNZ, 18% of farmers reported using cow wearables (smart monitoring devices like collars or ear tags), compared to 3% in 2018. This growth translates to more than 820,000 cows now equipped with devices. 
• It’s great news because technology is helping farmers be more efficient in a world where they face more regulation and compliance requirements.  
• Fonterra/NZ has a great reputation internationally for producing highly efficient, high-quality milk that's desirable compared to many other countries.  
• It drew the attention of food conglomerates Mars and Nestle, who are kicking in to help fund the subsidy. 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks, that'd be yes.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
I can't believe it's not. But I've been a funny
old week on that front, Hassen, And I can't say
I was blown away with surprise when Fontira came out
and said, you know what, No, actually, we're not gonna
lower our profits. We're not gonna cut our cloth so
that Kiwis can have slightly cheaper butter. But yeah, very
interesting to watch it all unfold. And watching it unfold
was tech commentator Oscar Howell, who has noted that Fontira

(00:36):
has an interesting little scheme, a little incentive program underway
at the moment for qualifying farmer shareholders, which basically means
that if they live up to various standards, they do
what they're supposed to do under the cooperative, they can
get fifteen hundred bucks a year as a subsidy to
invest on on farm technology or services. Get a Oscar,
what in a jack?

Speaker 3 (00:56):
Thanks for having me?

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yeah, thanks for being with us. So what kind of
on farm tech are farmers using?

Speaker 3 (01:03):
Well? Currently, the kind of big things are pieces of
tech that are going to make their life easier. Give
them better access to information help them make decisions quicker.
So you're looking at things like pasture management. You know,
there's apps and dashboards out there like aim of Farming,
which kind of you know, give them insights into pasture
growth deficits and surpluses. You've got things like on farmer
accountancy data and insights optimization, things like trev all the

(01:27):
way down to kind of how their animals are faring,
recording all of their animal data, that sort of thing.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yeah, And increasingly farmers in new seumds, especially dairy farmers,
are using like wearables for cows, right, and I think
of that amazing company Halter, which does the smart collars.
But you've got a survey here from twenty twenty three
done by a dairy and Z that I think shows
about eighteen percent of farmers are now using wearables on their.

Speaker 3 (01:49):
Cout Yeah, and I mean that's translating to over eight
hundred thousand cows across the country. It's up from about
three percent and twenty eighteen, which, like you said that
they're effectively smart watchers for cows, and it gives farmers
insights into all of the different things happening inside their head.
And yeah, again, it just goes to show farmers of
really embracing technology to make their lives easier.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah, it's funny because I think a lot of us
who aren't farmers still think, oh, well, you know, it's
all about just growing good grass. And sure they might
you know, check a couple of diodes in the ground
or whatever, get a bit of a reading, maybe they've
got a rain gauge or two that's been digitized. But
you know, what more can you really you know, improve
on the technology front on farms. But clearly, when it
comes to productivity, technology is making some big grounds.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
Technology it's just making such an incredible difference in the
lives of farmers. You know, if they can make decisions quicker,
if they can be better informed when they make those decisions,
they can save so much time and so many resources
you know, in the process.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
And I see that part of the substy has been
funded by Mars and Nestle too, which is intriguing given
they're the big kind of Fonterra buyers, right.

Speaker 3 (02:56):
And I think that kind of comes down to what
they see as their corporate social responsibility, you know. Fonterra
New Zealand in general, we've got such a great reputation
around the world for how high quality it is. You know,
we're seen as this beautiful grass fed you know, animals
producing high quality milk. And I think, you know, companies
like Mars and Nessie are keen to kind of kick

(03:17):
in and help grow that image and obviously maintain that image.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah, amazing for farmers, amazing for productivity and know what, Oscar,
My only concern I don't see how this makes my
butter and e cheaper.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
Well, I know, I hate That's not my area of expertition.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, fair enough to Hey, thank you for
your time. We appreciate it. Ask her how in talking
tech for us this week. It is a really interesting
little scheme and amazing the extent to which farmers in
New Zealand are starting to use those wearables as well.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
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