Wayne and Raewyn Reynolds
For Hamilton farmers Wayne and Raewyn Reynolds, DairyBase has helped sort fact from opinion.
The benchmarking process has proved particularly beneficial to the couple, and has allowed them to confirm and shape decisions. DairyBase allows farmers to compare their performance with similar farms by providing benchmarks for different regions.
Wayne recalls one specific incident where information from DairyBase proved invaluable. His accountant made a comment that spending on repairs and maintenance was too high. This concerned Wayne so he referred to the benchmarks available on DairyBase which in fact showed his spending was bang on average.
The Reynolds, who milk 500 cows, use benchmarks in two ways.
By using DairyBase the couple can work out which of their expenses are the biggest deviation from average and react accordingly to reduce those costs. They also benchmark themselves against the top 10 per cent of North Island owner/operators with the aim of moving their economic farm surplus to top 10 per cent levels over the next two years.
DairyBase can provide the catalyst for change according to Wayne.
“It gives you a sense of direction in that it forces you to think about why you are different from your benchmark group and what you can do about it rather than carrying on doing the same thing year in and year out,” he says.
Wayne and Raewyn, who have farmed on their 158 ha farm since 2003, have also used the data to monitor their progress and the impact of different decisions on their business.
“We track what has happened to profit over time and relate that back to system changes that we’ve made. For example we were actually able to work out that by going to a higher input system we hadn’t increased our profit, so we reduced our stocking rate and dropped our input again,” says Wayne.
The Reynolds are the driving force behind the establishment of the Hamilton North Benchmarking Discussion Group, formed in 2008.
Farmers in the group are able to benchmark against each other and discuss the reasons behind their results.
“That has been quite challenging hearing the decisions other farmers have made which have led to the level of costs they’ve had,” says Wayne.
The Reynolds have DairyBase data for their farm starting from the 2004/05 season and intend to keep using the tool well into the future. Their accountant inputs the financial data and Wayne fills out a questionnaire for the physical data.
“Basically we couldn’t manage our business without it. We could run our business but we couldn’t manage it,” says Wayne.
He is eager for other farmers to get on board.
“At the moment the weakness is that not enough people are putting their level two physical data in. I can benchmark against the top 10 per cent but I can’t get their physical data, so I don’t know how many cows per labour unit they are milking or what nitrogen they are using. More detail like that would help explain and flesh out the financial results,” he says.
Inputting physical data is pretty straightforward, says Wayne.
“You just have to be aware that you need to keep track of things for the season, like how much supplement you have bought in and your submission rate,” he says.