Wired guide to farming by numbers

By RICHARD WOOD

A farm management system that collects data electronically from farmers and science and industry agencies lays claim to radically change the business of farming.

The system's developer, Waikato-based former farmer Peter Floyd, says his Cogent system allows farms to be managed in the same way as businesses such as McDonald's or The Warehouse.

Sustainable gains in net farm profits of at least 20 per cent are claimed, and up to 60 per cent in some cases.

Floyd says his farming-by-numbers approach is more than the usual farm management and advisory service because it integrates production and financial figures.

For an initial charge of $990 and payments of $90 a week for three years, farmers join the system and receive a CD containing templates for collecting information each week.

The chief element in the process is the production of key performance indicators showing the net profit of every kilogram of grass grown on the property per day, and the return on investment in the animals for that day.

This can, for example, help a farmer to decide whether to remove stock for part of the year because drought is making the farm unprofitable. A coach helps farmers to set goals and use the results.

Key performance indicators are not new to farming, but Floyd says his are unique because they dramatically reduce what farmers need to put in to collect data.

"We pick up the financials from the bank and milk company and all of the grass analysis comes electronically from the labs and data comes from the meat works.

"That is the powerfulness of the Cogent process."

Farmers measure the rainfall and the soil temperature. On a dairy farm, they add how many cows are milked each day and the supplementary feed.

But Warren Morritt, director of dairy consultancy Intelact, queries whether Cogent is unique. His company and others offer farm monitoring and advisory services using computer data analysis, systems and consultants.

He also questions the value of daily or weekly monitoring, particularly for dairying, where it is not so easy to buy and sell stock in reaction to the weather.

Morritt says farmers can get caught up in key performance indicators and focus too hard on them - but he agrees with the types of indicators Cogent is producing.

"We have certainly found that our most successful clients are those that increase production per hectare and per cow and increase pasture harvested per year.

"The grass is really what you've got your land for in the first place, so that you can convert that grass into milk solids production."

Floyd says anyone who thinks his or her system is similar to Cogent does not understand the way it works.

"It's a totally integrated system process looking at all the issues every day of the year.

"There are a lot of financial systems run by accountants, a lot of production systems run by farm advisers."

Marlborough sheep and cattle farmers Kevin and Carol Loe, who have used Cogent since field trials began, point to substantial growth.

"It took us from being a weak seller to being a strong seller by understanding our own strengths in our own environment," says Kevin Loe.

He says Cogent brings all the data together, puts it to use and helps avoid over-optimism.

Northland dairy farmers Evan and Sherleen Smeath are also among the system's guinea pigs.

"We've certainly got some major advantages out of it," says Evan Smeath.

On top of better decision making, he has halved his accounting bills because financial data is already entered for the Cogent system.

Floyd has worked on the system since 1991.

He says he has tuned the system, working with around 50 customers. The target for this year is 500, then 5000 the year after.

His company has six permanent staff. All the software has been developed using standard Microsoft tools such as Visual Basic, Access, Excel and Word.