The Country
  • The Country home
  • Latest news
  • Audio & podcasts
  • Opinion
  • Dairy farming
  • Sheep & beef farming
  • Rural business
  • Rural technology
  • Rural life
  • Listen on iHeart radio

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • Coast & Country News
  • Opinion
  • Dairy farming
  • Sheep & beef farming
  • Horticulture
  • Animal health
  • Rural business
  • Rural technology
  • Rural life

Media

  • Podcasts
  • Video

Weather

  • Kaitaia
  • Whāngarei
  • Dargaville
  • Auckland
  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Hamilton
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Te Kuiti
  • Taumurunui
  • Taupō
  • Gisborne
  • New Plymouth
  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Whanganui
  • Palmerston North
  • Levin
  • Paraparaumu
  • Masterton
  • Wellington
  • Motueka
  • Nelson
  • Blenheim
  • Westport
  • Reefton
  • Kaikōura
  • Greymouth
  • Hokitika
  • Christchurch
  • Ashburton
  • Timaru
  • Wānaka
  • Oamaru
  • Queenstown
  • Dunedin
  • Gore
  • Invercargill

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / The Country

Finding the right technology solutions for farmers

By Sally Rae
Otago Daily Times·
30 Mar, 2017 05:00 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Tara Dwyer enjoys helping farmers to solve issues. Photo / Supplied

Tara Dwyer enjoys helping farmers to solve issues. Photo / Supplied

Every day, Tara Dwyer gets to talk to farmers about their businesses and the issues they face.

Miss Dwyer (24) returned to New Zealand last year, after a stint working in Australia, to join FarmIQ in a sales role.

It was whetted by an interest in entering the farming support sector and how technology could help in farming.

Growing up on a sheep and beef farm south of Oamaru, she helped out on the farm but it was not until her last year at St Kevin's College that she decided she wanted to enter the agricultural industry.

She completed an agricultural science degree at Lincoln University, a ''fantastic'' experience and also an opportunity to also make life-long friends.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

After finishing at the end of 2014, she headed to Tasmania to work on farms with her partner Angus Barr.

It was a similar climate to Central Otago and she was working mainly on merino and cereal cropping properties. She was a shepherd initially and then moved into more of a management role.

Tasmanian farming had many similar challenges to New Zealand, including getting good, motivated labour and managing the environment.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

''In the last 12 months we were there they had the worst drought for 30 or 40 years. We had to manage the stock to ensure their health and wellbeing while also managing the land so that at the end of summer there wouldn't be just dirt,'' she said.

She believed Tasmanian sheep and cattle farmers were generally about five to eight years behind New Zealand.

They were ''behind the ball'' with adapting technology and new ways of farming. There was also not the pressure that New Zealand farmers had, with Australia having such a strong domestic market.

She was now living at Ettrick where Mr Barr managed a sheep and cattle property. She was used to living in small communities and she was enjoying it, along with her job.

Discover more

Listen: Te Radar talks about 'whip-smart' Lisa Kendall

20 Mar 12:44 AM

Young Farmer hopeful eager to keep challenging himself

28 Mar 11:30 PM
Opinion

Dom 'Furious' George: 'Stalin of the skies' gets my vote

29 Mar 09:02 PM

Listen: Dr Tim Mackle accentuates the positive for the dairy industry

30 Mar 01:25 AM

''I get to go out every day and talk with farmers about their business and, more to the point, the issues they face.

''Being able to help them use it to resolve these is rewarding. FarmIQ can offer them an immediate solution to many of the problems they face.

''There is so much information on a farm every single day that is not being captured. We can help them capture that and make something of it. That might be pasture information, for example. Farmers can use a whole realm of data to better understand and manage what is going on. It's measuring to manage.''

It was all about relationships with her clients. Selling the FarmIQ product to them was a very small part of it, she said.

It was about long-term relationships with farmers to help them use the product to get the most out of it and ultimately make better farm management decisions.

She believed there was a lot of opportunities in the farming sector. ''I like that any person can achieve anything in farming if they are willing to get stuck in and do the work and solve the problems they're faced with. And you can see what you have achieved fairly quickly too,'' she said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

There were ''huge opportunities'' a lot of people were missing to record information that was ''pretty crucial'' to knowing what was going on with their land, whether that was stock management or pasture related.

Otago could be a challenging area to convince some farmers to adapt new ideas but the world was ''definitely starting to move'' and awareness was increasing.

Her favourite part of the role was talking to farmers about their different issues, which varied throughout the region, and ''nutting out'' how she could help them.

In her spare time, Miss Dwyer enjoyed helping on the farm that Mr Barr managed and she had also been a member of Young Farmers ''on and off'' since secondary school.

The Teviot Valley Young Farmers club, of which she was a member, was a ''pretty strong club''. It hosted the Otago-Southland regional final of the FMG Young Farmer of the Year last month.

Miss Dwyer, whose father Kerry won the grand final in 1990, was keen to have a crack herself at some stage.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from The Country

Premium
The Country

Ex-TV host Matt Chisholm's bold new career; 'Hugely unpopular' - battle royale brews inside Stuff

04 Jul 10:13 AM
The Country

Farmer's neglect: Emaciated stag was trapped in fence and thick mud, other deer were dead

04 Jul 02:57 AM
The Country

Central North Island feels impact of heavy rain

04 Jul 02:44 AM

There’s more to Hawai‘i than beaches and buffets – here’s how to see it differently

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from The Country

Premium
Ex-TV host Matt Chisholm's bold new career; 'Hugely unpopular' - battle royale brews inside Stuff

Ex-TV host Matt Chisholm's bold new career; 'Hugely unpopular' - battle royale brews inside Stuff

04 Jul 10:13 AM

Well-known Kiwi's court move over story; Which political leader is best/worst with media?

Farmer's neglect: Emaciated stag was trapped in fence and thick mud, other deer were dead

Farmer's neglect: Emaciated stag was trapped in fence and thick mud, other deer were dead

04 Jul 02:57 AM
Central North Island feels impact of heavy rain

Central North Island feels impact of heavy rain

04 Jul 02:44 AM
Forestry and footy with Taine Randell on The Country

Forestry and footy with Taine Randell on The Country

04 Jul 02:33 AM
From early mornings to easy living
sponsored

From early mornings to easy living

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP