Quick and simple recording for a diverse farming business.
Canterbury farmer Peter Lowe wouldn’t call himself savvy with a computer, but now it’s become a crucial tool for his intensive stock and cropping operation.
Peter and his wife Diane farm a 242ha block on the Canterbury Plains near Ashburton that’s 95% irrigated, as well as some leased land. They run 3500 sheep, beef and deer stock units including a Romney stud, produce cash crops and do some dairy grazing. They employ casuals for about four months of the year to get through the work.
Peter was keen to get computer software to cover off their farm compliance and assurance. But it’s busy on the farm, and he didn’t want anything that would take too much time or be too complicated to use.
He has found farm management software that suits and is now using it to do much of the key farm recording. He’s using it to record all the animal health treatments and fertiliser applied as well as planting and cropping schedules, rainfall and stock tallies.
The Lowes have had two meat company assurance audits since they started with the software. Peter used the software report options to print out the information needed. “It’s just what you want,” he says. “It exceeded their expectations.”
Peter can also print reports for the owners of grazing animals to show “it’s all been done properly”.
To help with using the software, he has access to help desk staff who he finds “very helpful and positive. They are user-friendly.”
The software is also good for the long-term farm record, he says, as the information is stored off the farm in the internet cloud. “It’s good to know they are safe. If needed, someone else could pick it up and run with it. I have been building up a record since I started farming, but most of it’s stuck in notebooks at the back of the desk.”
Not feeling computer-savvy and want to get started? Check out this farm management software...
