Worth also needs to work digitally as her territory covers all of the upper North Island.
Originally set up by the Government, Farm IQ is 26 per cent owned by Farmlands, New Zealand's largest rural co-operative, 26 per cent by Pāmu Farms of New Zealand (Landcorp), 26 per cent by Silver Fern Farms, 13.5 percent by MSD Animal Health and 8.3 per cent by Veterinary Enterprises, New Zealand's largest vet company.
The aim is to help farmers to farm smarter, armed with better information so farmers can produce more of what the market values.
Farm plans, like all business plans, act as a template for the farm operations.
With three levels of service available, on a monthly subscription, the system is cloud-based and works in a similar way to accounting systems such as Xero.
"Rather than fishing through a drawer for papers, farm information is now all available in an organised format and this will be a real advantage to the farmer as markets increasingly require transparency and traceability,'' she says.
Worth says the farm environment plan template can largely be filled out by farmers themselves, and they can invite in other professionals to help them complete the documents.
"Farm environment planning in FarmIQ is as collaborative as farmers want to make it'' she says.
Farm environment plans are now a requirement of some councils as compliance becomes more complex and record keeping is a stipulation of consents.
"Some regional council requirements can get really complex,'' she says.
In Northland, farming is a permitted activity and water quality is the main focus of resource consents, she says.
"Farm Environment Plans are not a requirement yet in Northland, but they're likely to be in the next three to five years.''
Farm IQ has been developed for dairy and livestock industries, and the information collated is extensive.
Features and tools include an interactive digital farm map, health and safety, diary, calendar and tasks, staff timesheet and rosters, land recording and reporting, animal recording and reporting, farm plans, inventory management and the Farm Assurance Programme.
The platform is used by a variety of agri-businesses to provide services to customers. VetEnt's, GrazCare and StockCare are built on the FarmIQ platform, along with AgFirst's Landbase and Synlait's dairy diary.
By pulling all the farmer's data together into one place, everyone benefits, she says.
"It gives our farmers a leg up and really helps them save money in the long run.
"Online farm plans are particularly helpful when there are a lot of shareholders. Northland has a lot of Maori farm enterprises where the farm manager has to report on performance and profitability to a lot of shareholders and a trust board."
Adding in farm environment plans also helps with compliance and consenting processes as well as having information available for funding applications.
"It's all about good record keeping."
To comply with health and safety issues under Covid-19 lockdown rules, a free app called SafeVisit is available for farmers to be able to approve visits to the farm before people arrive, remotely induct visitors without them needing to interact with anyone, keep track of where visitors are on the farm and maintain accurate records of each visitor.
Farmlands shareholders also have free access to a companion app called SafeFarm that helps farmers to comply with health and safety regulations.
Digital saleyards Bidr and StockX are also conducting online sale auctions, connecting buyers and sellers virtually and keeping livestock moving at a time when stock yards are unable to operate.
In an increasingly digital world, Worth says comprehensive farming management systems helps New Zealand farmers to be ahead of the pack.
