DairyNZ represents all New Zealand dairy farmers, to protect and advance their competitive edge on the global market

DairyBase

DairyBase - The New Zealand national dairy farm business database.

DairyBase is a web-based package for recording and reporting standardised dairy farm business information - both physical and financial. The software for DairyBase was specifically developed for the New Zealand dairy industry.

This dairy database replaces the annual Dexcel Economic Survey.

Reports generated from DairyBase will help a farm business and its performance by:

Benchmarking an individual farm through time
Comparing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) against similar farms

DairyBase is now available for use by accredited rural professionals. The database enables Rural Professionals to give advice on areas to help grow and improve the farm business. This data is critical for strategic farm business planning and the aggregated data will also be used to identify robust regional and national trends.

The 2005-06 Dairy Base® Economic Survey is the first year the annual survey of dairy farmers has been conducted using dairy farm business data entered into Dairy Base. Previous data has been re-aligned and adjustments for operating profit recalculated to ensure data is comparative through time.

This publication is a reference compilation of dairy farmers' key financial data and trends.

A wealth of information at your fingertips – a case study

Kyle and Madelein Brennan were introduced to DairyBase the year they won the Central Plateau Sharemilker of the Year. They are enthusiastic users of the information and analysis that Dairy Base provides.

"Your accountant may charge you a small cost for entering the financial data from your accounts into DairyBase," says Kyle. "But we believe this is 'chicken feed' compared to the wealth of information at your fingertips that you gain."

"We would encourage other farmers and sharemilkers to make the extra morning's effort to gather the information needed for the level 2 physical data. Without it you can still see whether you are financially 'humming' or 'not up to scratch', but trying to work out why is more difficult."

"Case in point – Our DairyBase analysis as sharemilkers showed we were spending $10/cow on re-grassing, while the North Island average was $3/cow. Was this because we used expensive contractors or that a higher proportion of the farm was re grassed? Without the level 2 data we could not have answered this."

"Another big plus is having all your important historical farm statistics in one place - things like mastitis rates, fertiliser application and imported feed."

"No more scouring through last year's yellow notebook or searching for that scrap of paper long since filed … somewhere."

For more information on how DairyBase could benefit you, visit www.dairybase.co.nz