Oskar Howell: Fonterra's On Farm Services incentive programme

What's the news?  Fonterra has announced an On Farm Services incentive programme for qualifying farmer-shareholders.   The scheme allows farmers who meet their cooperative difference standard, a baseline performance and efficiency standard, to receive what is effectively a $1,500 yearly subsidy to invest in on-farm technology or services.   Ranges from animal performance tools from genetics companies, as well as pasture and data optimisation tools, and on-farm planting to improve carbon sequestration.   Pasture Management: Apps and dashboards, AI and satellite imagery to manage and optimise pasture on farms. Data optimisation: Farmers deal with so much data flowing in through so many on-farm touchpoints, some services aggregate all that info into key insights farmers can rely on to make good decisions.   Animal performance: Animal testing on their cows.     Why it matters   Obviously a massive deal – this contributes so much to on-farm costs and gives farmers a comfortable buffer to experiment with more technology that could be a massive help.   It contributes to the trend of growing tech use on-farm by farmers.   In a 2023 survey by DairyNZ, 18% of farmers reported using cow wearables (smart monitoring devices like collars or ear tags), compared to 3% in 2018. This growth translates to more than 820,000 cows now equipped with devices.  It’s great news because technology is helping farmers be more efficient in a world where they face more regulation and compliance requirements.   Fonterra/NZ has a great reputation internationally for producing highly efficient, high-quality milk that's desirable compared to many other countries.   It drew the attention of food conglomerates Mars and Nestle, who are kicking in to help fund the subsidy.    LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.