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Out on the farm: Autumn 2024

Head of Sales and Marketing, Russell MacKay, has a fifth-generation family sheep and beef farm near Queenstown. Here's his farming update as we deal with a mixed autumn.And just like that, autumn is here. As I look out my window in Southland, I see plenty of pasture and rain soaking into the ground. This summer, we’ve seen a regular pattern of rain, sun, pasture growth, brief dry spells, then rain again - rinse and repeat. The two previous summers were very dry for us, so this growing sea...

The wriggly, niggly issue of worms: Tackling drench resistance on New Zealand farms

With a bit of media around drench resistance lately, we had a chat with Ginny Dodunski, Wormwise Programme Manager at Beef + Lamb New Zealand, about what drench resistance means for farmers and how they can effectively manage worms on their farms.  Ginny is a self-proclaimed ‘sheep geek’ and has spent more than twenty years as a vet in New Zealand and Australia. More recently, she has moved to Beef + Lamb New Zealand to focus on worms and improving the sustainability of internal pa...

Let the rain fall down: New weather station integration now live

FarmIQ has recently released an integration with Harvest, meaning that you can now send weather data from Harvest to a weather station in FarmIQ. This makes it easy to build a reliable and accurate history of your farm's weather. FarmIQ can receive daily and hourly information for rainfall, temperature, soil temperature and soil moisture.  This will be recorded in the history of each paddock the weather station is associated with, and you can use your Dashboard...

The FarmIQ Freshwater Farm Plan Tool is now live!

Today is the day! The Freshwater Farm Plan tool in FarmIQ is now live and available in every FarmIQ pack.We created the FarmIQ Freshwater Farm Plan tool to help simplify the process and take you through all the sections step by step, in easy-to-chew bites. Our Freshwater Farm Plan tool will help you:Map your land Complete a risk assessment Build a 5-year action plan You can work by yourself or in tandem with your consultant or farm advisor, thanks to our easy third-party...

New FarmIQ packs and pricing

We’ve been working on a new product suite that will make it easier for farmers to find the FarmIQ product that best suits their needs. We've also changed our pricing to be per farm instead of per stock unit. Feedback from our customers has been that pricing according to stock unit is too confusing and users would prefer a standard price upfront.  If you are a current FarmIQ user you will still get the same great features (plus some awesome new features!), but the name of your pa...

Out on the farm: Summer 23 - 24

Head of Sales and Marketing, Russell MacKay, has a fifth-generation family sheep and beef farm near Queenstown. Here's his farming update as we head into the summer months....

Know what you grow with the new pasture features in FarmIQ

Our awesome new features will help you manage your all-important pasture on both the mobile app and the web app, meaning you can really drill down into your data and know what you grow.The new mobile app features:Record pasture covers on the go - simply click on a paddock to enter a pasture cover, see previous covers and view daily growth ratesUnderstand your farm's pasture growth at a glance with the new pasture cover heatmap, effectively showing you how pasture growth compares in different pad...

In defence of data

Head of Product, Dr. Todd White, wrote an interesting opinion piece about the use of data in agriculture.A recent opinion piece published in a New Zealand farming newspaper criticised some aspects of today’s agriculture that I believe are core to its continual advancement. The article took issue with how “computer-generated advice” is being increasingly used to help guide farmers to make management decisions. It went on to imply that science is biased because it loves to average data so it...

Deferred grazing a good option for farmers

In a recent study by AgResearch, deferred grazing was found to be an effective and low-cost grazing management strategy. FarmIQ’s Head of Product and pasture scientist, Dr. Todd White, shared some thoughts around deferred grazing and why it can be such a valuable option for farmers:One of the biggest factors limiting animal production on New Zealand hill country farms is not pasture quantity in late spring/summer, but pasture quality. In late spring, there can be a more than a five factor incr...

The new and improved FarmIQ map

The FarmIQ map has had a facelift, meaning it is looking sharp and clean, and is now super simple to navigate. All draw and edit features of the map are now under one menu on the left-hand panel - this includes paddocks, block groups, features and hazards. You can also add and edit multiple features at once - check out how fast it is to add multiple troughs in the gif below. The key benefits:Quickly and easily find the draw and edit featuresAdd multiple new features at onceHover t...

Is your animal dead and gone? Record it in FarmIQ

Recording a death while out and about on farm has never been easier thanks to our new and improved mobile app! This feature enables users to quickly and simply add a death on farm, making it more efficient for all FarmIQ farmers to keep all their records up to date – no matter whether they are in the shed or out on the back blocks.All FarmIQ packs can record deaths, however, getting there is slightly different. Everyday pack farmers can record a death via their favourites list, whereas Pe...

Emerging rural professional, Sarah Hawkins, wins top award

Environmental and dairy consultant, Sarah Hawkins, has been named as the Farmax/FarmIQ Emerging Rural Professional of the Year for 2023, the top contender in a field of highly talented and passionate nominees.Sarah is a consultant at BakerAg, specialising in a number of areas, including environmental plans, financial analysis, farm system design and nutrient management. She brings her skills working with programs such as Overseer, FARMAX and mapping software to help farmers find solutions i...

Access the info you need, faster, with new mob history updates

In August we released some awesome updates to the Mob history, meaning you’ll be able to access the information you need, faster.The key benefits:The new design brings the important information to the forefront, where it’s easier to see and update your Mob history data.You can now access the Mob history from a pop-up so you don’t lose where you were working or what updates you were making. There's improved graphing of key data, including the ability to zero in on different time p...

Emerging Rural Professional Award winner takes his prize on tour

Since 2012, we’ve sponsored the Emerging Rural Professional of the Year Award at the New Zealand Institute of Primary Industry Management (NZIPIM) annual conference. This award was created to celebrate and recognise passionate and innovative young people in Aotearoa’s agricultural industry. Previously known as the FARMAX Emerging Rural Professional of the Year Award, following a merger and rebrand, the award is now sponsored by FarmIQ Systems Ltd. Despite a change in sponsorship title, ...

Less work off the farm with animal health treatment recording on the go

Our new and improved mobile access to animal health treatments (AHT) makes it faster and easier for all FarmIQ farmers* to update their records from your new mobile app.  Thanks to our latest updates, farmers can add their treatments on-the-go directly from the map, cutting data entry time in half. Anything recorded from the mobile app will be added to your animal health treatment report, making sure you’re all set when it comes time for assurance audits.&nbs...

What you need to know about freshwater farm plans

Freshwater farm plans (FWFPs) are now required in parts of the Waikato and Southland, with all other regions to be legislated by the end of 2025. Farm operators will have 18 months to produce a plan for certification from when this is ‘turned on’ in their region.Freshwater farm plans are a practical way for farmers to identify, manage and reduce the impact of farming on the freshwater environment. Farmers must do an on-farm freshwater risk assessment and identify actions to manage (or mitiga...

Move your mob, while moving your mob!

You can now record mob moves faster than ever on our new mobile app - making it easier to keep an accurate record of your stock and ensuring everyone is on the same page.On a rainy day, the last thing you want to do is to hike to the other side of the farm to shift a mob, only to find out they were moved yesterday.Knowing where your stock are at all times and having access to an Event Log keeps your mind at ease. And coupled with our digital map, this feature is also han...

AgResearch officially becomes a shareholder of FarmIQ

Through FarmIQ’s acquisition of FARMAX in 2021, the company formed a strategic partnership with Crown Research Institute (CRI) AgResearch. Through a shared vision to provide the primary industry with better access to information and support, AgResearch has become the preferred provider of science and research for FarmIQ.  “For us, it’s all about finding ways to provide th...

Knowing your GHG number - FarmIQ & GHG calculators

Alison Worth, FarmIQ's Environment lead and Thomas Botica, Farmax's GHG specialist discuss about what information you need to calculate your farm's GHG emissions number. Chances are you may be recording it already in FarmIQ, so we'll impart some handy tips on how to find, view and share required data. We'll base the format on both the Beef + Lamb NZ and Farmax GHG calculators so there's something for everyone.Who is it forAgendaIntroductionGHGCalculating your GHG numberQ&A...