Business Model
The key information management tasks associated with dairy farming relate to the management of stock and pasture.
Dairy farming necessitates farmers and sharemilkers acquiring cows with good breeding (production worth) and mating them to produce calves and hence optimal quantities of milk at the desired quality levels over the dairy season. It is vital for the both industry and the individual farmer to capture information on each cow's lineage and fertility status. This information enables farmers to select and purchase the optimal animals for specific circumstances, and mate them optimally. Furthermore, breeding information can be used to selectively improve the national livestock quality. Some of this information, such as breeding and production worth, is acquired upon purchase from the breeder. Other cow-related information, such as fertility status, is available from the Livestock Improvement Centre (LIC) databases, which provide a repository of information collected on each animal through regular herd testing activities. Farmers and sharemilkers also maintain individual health records on each animal to ensure that it remains healthy and productive.
After calving in July, cows are milked for approximately nine months to the end of April. Milk is stored on the farm in refrigerated silos and is collected by tankers every second day. Tanker drivers check the acidity of milk before collection to eliminate the possibility of collecting sour milk and take samples from the silo for testing. The milk is automatically weighed as it is pumped into the tanker, and the driver records the quantity on the delivery docket. The samples are tested at the processing plant and the fat and protein ratio (milk solids) information is available the next day for farmers to access on the Fencepost.com web site, or delivered by the tanker driver at the next collection. As farmers are paid for milk solids per kilogram, it is vital for them to know the quality of the milk that the herd is producing. The higher the milk solids content of the milk, the better the payout for the farmer. Farmers rely on information from the dockets and the processing plant to adjust their farm practices on a daily basis to optimise their returns. They also have access to information about industry average, district average and historical data of the farm up to twenty-fours from last collection time against which to benchmark their individual farm performance.
In order to achieve a high milk solids ratio in milk, farmers must also invest in stock feed and pasture. Aside from investments in stock, these are the most significant costs facing the business. Farmers must generate feed plans for the animals. As the quality and amount of pasture directly impacts on the quality of milk produced,1 farmers conduct regular "farm walks" to analyse the amount and quality of pasture available, in order to plan stock movements around the farm, to determine the amount of supplementary feed required, and to devise pasture management plans (e.g. fertilizer application, planting).
In addition to the standard accounting tasks required of any business, the information management tasks specific to dairy farmers are a combination of on-farm observation tasks (both visual and scientific testing), and off-farm generic and specific information searches, to which the farmers apply their knowledge and experience to determine the courses of action that they will take on the farm.
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