Current Research

Farm Tools for Rural Professionals

Farm tools (software, packages, apps) are used by farmers and consultants to assist with farm decision making. Consequently, industry plus DairyNZ and Red Meat Profit Partnership as it's representatives, are interested in the availability of farm tools and how these are used. The Centre has had a farm tools project underway since 2010/11. The previous work has had both a...

How Dairy Consultants Help Farmers Design Improved Farming Systems

DairyNZ have developed a training programme to improve the capability of novice consultants and this is being tested across seven consultancy firms. One important source of knowledge that would be useful for this training programme is the knowledge held by experienced farm management consultants. New Zealand has a pool of very experienced farm management consultants with expertise in this area...

Marginal Imperative

Is the marginal imperative alive and kicking? Does it manifest itself through data and by inference, farmer behaviour? Economic theory shows that farm decision makers can operate optimal production systems by adjusting use of inputs and outputs to changes in prices. Through these actions, profits on average are greater than if they did not correctly adjust production to price changes...

Dairy Farm Systems for the Future

How to identify and design farming systems best suited to the changing environment and farmer circumstances is a challenge in today’s volatile world. Key questions that we seek to answer in this research are: What will be the farming system(s) of the future? How can farming systems adapt or change in an increasingly variable business environment[1] and how will these...

Dairy Farm Succession: Rural Professionals working with family dairy farming businesses

There has been little research conducted on rural professionals' contribution to succession planning despite their important role here. This proposed research with Rural Professionals working with dairy farming business clients on succession planning and implementation will expand on the Centre’s previous succession work. An understanding of Rural Professionals’ practices in advising family farm business on succession will help identify on-going...

Financial Management Tools on Dairy Farms

This work follows on from the previous research and development work conducted in evaluating farm tools. Case studies will be conducted with four dairy farmers using two to three different financial tools. Four farm accountants will also be interviewed regarding their own and their clients’ use of financial tools. The increased understanding of farm financial tools and how and why...