Friday, March 29, 2024

Future here now for arable farms

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Technology will be the biggest challenge for modern farming and its speed of change will be measured in months rather than decades, KPMG financial consultant Brent Love says
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So the arable industry must get “super fit” and tell its own story, he told the Foundation for Arable Research conference at Lincoln

“This isn’t being really good at one aspect of the business but good across all parts of the business.”

The parts were the management of physical resources to produce food, business governance and the impact the business had on the wider community.

“That’s the collaborative beast and the challenge for you is to be across the business rather than a specialist,” he told farmers.

Technology had continued to change how farmers managed physical resources.

“This is nothing new and as New Zealand farmers you are actually really good at utilising and reforming that technology to achieve better farm efficiency and optimise resources.”

But while technology was often costly, the timing was no longer a choice.

The use of drones, precision agriculture and robotics was changing the pace of farming, how labour was used and the scale of operations individual farmers could manage.

“We must be more open to these changes and be faster on the uptake as our competitors are already on the move.”

Data was the new DNA of the business and governance was an ever-changing space of how data was collected and used to change and evolve systems onfarm and beyond.

And while the NZ Story was being told by meat processors that was not the answer for the arable industry.

“Arable farmers need to tell their own story.

“The industry is one of the most exciting spaces to be right now as people move away from protein to eating cereal.”

Now was the best-ever chance for arable to tell its story and tell it from the farm, he said.

“Being able to tell a customer that the bread they are eating came from a farm in Canterbury, had minimal impact on the environment, is healthy to consume and contributed positively to its surrounding community – I believe will potentially bring a premium in a world that will soon be dominated by other potentially cheaper food options such as synthetic proteins.

“The speed of change is fast and unfortunately there isn’t choice, you have to keep up,” Love said.

“The future isn’t five years away – it’s here now so time to play.

“Be brave with your investment in technology and tell your own story.” 

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