CSB - Michelle Good - Fonterra

 Manager for On Farm Excellence Innovation

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Country Sport Breakfast with Brian Kelly on
Gold Sport on the show. Now it's time to catch
up with some of the team at Fontira. It's been
a while since we've spoken. Today we're joined by Michelle
good who's the manager for on Farm Excellence Innovation from
the farm Source team. Michelle good morning, welcome.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Along, Thanks for having me, Brian.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Absolute pleasure. It's that time of year when your team
at farm Source sends out the Farm Insights Reports to farmers.
Could you tell us a little bit more about this
year's reports.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Please, Yeah, that's right, Brian. So we send out the
Farm Insights Reports and we sent out twenty three twenty
four is in reports last month and it's a fourth
season that we've provided these reports to our farmers. So
the Farm in Such report is really designed to give
farmers that snap shot of the farm efficiency and to

(00:51):
help them identify some of those potential improvement opportunities on farm.
And you know this year the reporter has had a
revamp which is very excited and we've got a range
of new features and efficiency metrics are included in that
for farmers. So we start off in that report by
looking at the farm's big picture, and the furs section
includes data around things like production per cow, purchased nitrogen surplus,

(01:15):
and greenhouse gas emissions. And then perhaps I think the
most important part is that we show how this information
is trended over time for a farm and also how
that farm compares to similar operations. So we're benchmarking against
farms in similar areas and similar systems to give farmers
that extra insight. There's also sections on feed efficiency, animal efficiency,

(01:38):
and a greenhouse gas breakdown. So the Farm Insights Report
is really around giving farmers that overview of their farm
p futmants with that context of the benchmarking, and ultimately
helping them to identify some of those improvement opportunities and
get more out of their business.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
See, there's a lot of work there. These reports, imagine
are personalized for each farm, right, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
That's right. So the Farm Insights Reports are personalized. They
use a range of data, so we pull together things
like our farmers farm dairy records that they provide to
us annually. We've got information in there based on milk collections,
and we've also got an increasing number of partners who
are providing data to us, and so there's a bit

(02:22):
of an added bonus there that the more information that
we can get from those kind of partners, the less
that farmers have to double handle information and that the
cuts down on admins for them. So we've got a
range of data sources and as you see, every farm
is different and depending on the system, the goals, the
unique way of farming, each farm will be unique. And

(02:44):
so this report really gives farmers a personalized snapshot how
their farm is performing and how it compares to other
similar operations. So having that personalized view is also really
useful for our field things. That means that we can
work one to one with our farmers to help them
make plans and to connect them with relevant tools and

(03:05):
other specialist expertise available in the industry to make some
of those improvements in their business.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
See, that's amazing. It's all about efficiency. So what are
some examples of the efficiency opportunities that you mentioned.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah, so our report provides advice and resources on a
range of topics, so you know, just to highlight a
few of those. There's information on farm efficient emissions, so
what the emissions levels are, what farmers can do to
help lower their emissions intensity, there's also information in there

(03:40):
on nutrient optimization, so our farmers getting the best growth
response from the fertilizers they're using. For example, there's a
section on feed efficiency, how we can help our farmers
to get higher production per cow using their existing feed inputs.
There's a section on animal efficiency which looks at the
opportunity it is to reduce health issues on farm and

(04:02):
also opportunities to improve herd reproduction. And then lastly there's
a section in there on milking efficiency, so how can
we save our farmer's time in the milk and shard.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
See, there's a lot of work going into that. Michelle,
it's fantastic and well done for what you've done. So
it's wonderful. Thank you for joining us and keep up
the great work.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
Fantastic thanks for your time. Brian