It brings together key information from the farming business in one place, offers performance benchmarking opportunities and enables farmers to make faster and smarter decisions, the partners have said.
Agrigate would be available from mid-February on mobile phone and computer platforms, a Fonterra spokesman said.
It would be a subscription service with levels of payment according to content and the possibility of sponsorship for farmers underwritten by third party participants.
The joint venture was formed mid-2016 to provide farmers with a single site to access their core data, such as milk production and quality records, herd and pasture figures and local weather forecasts.
Agrigate chairman and LIC managing director Wayne McNee said the tool would save time and improve the quality of information.
“Having data in one place and working in real time makes it easier to make comparisons, see trends and make better management decisions.
“A key outcome will be enabling farmers to make the most efficient use of their resources – which is important in both tough and better times.”
A prototype of Agrigate was trialled with 50 farmers in August and feedback from that group was useful in developing the platform further.
The product was now undergoing testing with a small group of farmers and due for a full release next month.
Post-launch feedback from farmers would continue to inform the ongoing development of Agrigate, with additional features to be added as new data partners came on board.
Northland dairy farmer Jersey breeder and LIC director Murray Jagger said at the formation of the joint venture last August that he was looking for one platform that unified all the smart phone and computer programmes and services now in use.
Ideally, all online services should also be accessible through smart phones, to provide paddock inputs and appeal to the younger managers and farm workers who ran their lives on mobile phones.
Jagger wanted that convergence so packages of aggregated data could be exported to the farm accountant, dairy company, bank manager, breed society, regional council and fertiliser supplier.
“We now need intuitive programmes that self-populate.
“It’s not just about compliance but using our farm data to make better decisions and create efficiencies.”
