The Farm
Thomas Ward a rural banker and his wife Fiona a teacher have been farming for the past six years. Prior to Woodbury they lived on a farm in Heinz. They employ one full time staff member and four part-time seasonal workers.
The Wards are sharemilkers on 220-hectare farm in Woodbury Christchurch, one of only two dairy farms in the area. A landowner who lives privately on the property owns the farm. A contractual agreement between the landowner and the sharemilkers delegates daily running of the farm to the sharemilkers whilst property investments related to change in pasture and feed are shared by the two parties, as these investments have a long term impact on the sustainability and productivity of the land. Most dairy farms in New Zealand operate on a contractual agreement between sharemilkers who run the daily operations of a farm and the owner of the land. The agreement allows the owner to conduct audits of the farm on a regular basis to determine utilization rates.
The farm supplies milk to Fonterra, a co-operative owned by suppliers. Fonterra arranges the logistics of milk collection from the farm gate to processing, and marketing of the manufactured products. As Fonterra provides systems for managing data related to shareholding, supply information and milk collection logistics, sharemilkers and farmers use information technologies mostly in support of farm management activities. Although this case study focuses on dairy farms it is presumed that farms in most other industries would likewise amalgamate logistics and industry information functions through third party arrangements such as co-operatives, industry associations and large processors, in order to capture the benefits of scale and scope economies available from processing and exporting (see Fonterra case study in this suite of analyses).
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