Benchmarking

Benchmarking is a process by which a farm business can evaluate and compare itself in chosen areas (financial and physical) to an external reference point for the purpose of monitoring and improvement.  Using benchmarks can be a way to identify areas of strength and diagnosing problems in performance, as well as establishing good practice for reviewing progress (or not).

Available Benchmarks

A wide variety of benchmarks are available on DairyBase ranging from business type, herd size, location, milking frequency, farm system, profitability and a new initiative is high performing individual farms. Because benchmarks are constantly being updated we recommend you log onto DairyBase and request a report to see the most up to date list of available benchmarks or contact DairyBase.

Examples of current and previous season's benchmarking data across New Zealand are available here.

Statistical Validity

A minimum of 20 farms must be entered for a benchmark group before statistics will become available. This ensures that confidentiality of individual data is maintained and that a minimum level of statistical representativeness has been achieved.

The greater the number in the sample, the more accurate the data will be. The validity of the benchmark for a region can be assessed by comparing 'Number in Benchmark Group' from your report with the following:

You may also be interested in:

• Benchmark data
• Benchmark types
• DairyNZ Economic Survey