David Stevens1, Bob Cottrell2, Tanira Kingi3, Weo Maag4, Tony Whaata5, Clinton Hemana6, Andrew Beijeman7, Marie Casey8, Fiona Comer9 and Shona Frengley9

1AgResearch Ltd

2 Tarawera Farm Trust

Whakaue Farming Ltd

4 Pukepoto Farm Trust

5Tautara Matawhaura Trust

6 Opepe Farm Trust

7Atihau Whanganui Incorporation

8PGG Wrightson Consulting

9Alliance Group Ltd

*Corresponding Author. David.stevens@agresearch.co.nz

 

ABSTRACT

One of the challenges faced by Māori Trusts and Incorporations is complex ownership and the resulting need for timely and useful information to be available to all levels of the organisation that can facilitate good decision-making. A pilot programme involving 6 Māori corporate farming enterprises, used benchmarking, KPI’s and whole farm review as tools to inform changes to meet future objectives. Twenty nine responses were documented highlighting changes from simple examination of current farm practice. Benchmarking provided a set of data to examine the current state of the farm and highlight where changes may be made. However, the group identified many issues with using industry production and profitability benchmarks, mainly due to different governance and management structures, scale and farm objectives. The tools used had the power to provide an appropriate way of communicating both the needs and direction of change between the layers of management and governance.


BIOGRAPHY

Dr Stevens has over 30 years’ experience in the impacts of pasture feeding and animal nutrition on the performance of all currently farmed ruminants in New Zealand. Specifically he was part of the successful team that designed and implemented many on-farm adoption projects, as well as developing apps for farmers to predict feed requirements (deerfeed.co.nz). He specializes in the discovery and application of animal nutrition and pasture management information in dairy, red deer and sheep farming systems and has published in the area of the impacts of adoption programs on farm profitability.

Categories
Categories
About conferences.com.au

conferences.com.au provides delegate registration, website and app solutions, and financial management for conferences, conventions and scientific meetings.