Farm Management Tools

There are a significant number of tools available to the New Zealand farmer and rural professional. The report compiled a list of 127 tools, but this number will continue to grow as new tools are developed and others that have been missed are added to the list.

These tools are disproportionately represented in the more established areas of farm management (stock, feed, financial), and under-represented in newer areas of farm management (nutrient, labour).

It is suggested that the average farmer or farm consultant would not know of the complete range of tools that are at their disposal. While market forces will dictate that the more successful/useful tools will rise to prominence, there are nevertheless likely to be tools that would help a particular farmer/consultant that are  not being used simply because they were not aware of them.

The general feeling is that the availability of farm management tools is not the limiting factor to lifting farm productivity. However new tools will need to be continually developed in order to adjust to a changing workplace.  The interconnectivity of tools and speed of internet connections is certainly an issue.

These two problems result in lowered time efficiency through multiple re-entry of data and waiting for downloads/uploads. Recommendations from S Wolfert explored that good management information systems take place at operational, tactical and strategic levels.