Most dairy farmers don’t even know about it, yet it is costing us millions of dollars both as taxpayers and through our DairyNZ levy.
DIGAD basically is the deregulating of Herd Improvement Industry (the data of herd testing, animal evaluations etc.) called the database.
This has now been going on for four years (now up to phase three) with at least three phases still to go.
Having attended an early meeting (held at LIC) after the meeting I asked a DairyNZ director how much it was going to cost. The answer: we haven’t done any costs.
This leaves me to ask:
If DIGAD is such a great idea why was it not up and running in time for the present downturn in the dairy industry?
How much is it going to cost?
What are the actual benefits?
What is the annual savings in money to the average dairy farmer?
When is DIGAD going to be up and running?
Why was a cost-benefit budget not done before a decision to proceed with DIGAD was made?
In recent months the concern is LIC talking of restructuring into two divisions. Surely the issues surrounding DIGAD need to be addressed first.
A breed society has been waiting four years for the database upgrade to produce its herd book.
With technology moving fast will DIGAD be out of date before it’s up and running?
There just seems to be no will on behalf of all the parties involved to bring DIGAD to a speedy conclusion.
It’s totally unsatisfactory from a dairy farmer perspective. Just where is the accountability?
Finally, I feel my DairyNZ levy would be better spent on:
Facial eczema, we need a simple once-a-year injection to control it;
More research on theileria and;
Plastic wrap disposal. I suggest trucks delivering fertiliser or palm kernel to farms could backload the silage wrap to a factory where natural gas could be used to melt them down to then be reused in products such as road makers, fruit box trays or even interlocking, two-metre square panels that could be used for temporary housing.
Ian Dibble
Te Aroha
