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Meet the team: Julie McInroe

"Nga Paparoa te maunga, Mawhera te awa, Ikamatua te kainga, Julie McInroe te ingoa.  Born and raised on a small sheep and cattle farm, I do have rural roots and with my sisters was pretty good at rounding up sheep, helping with haymaking and jumping up and down in the wool press. In fact, on a return visit to the farm only last year some graffiti we scratched on the woolshed was still there over 50 years later! After moving away from Tai Poutini I trained as a primary teacher in W...

FarmIQ spring tips

Calling all dairy farmers! Spring is the ideal time to record certain data in FarmIQ as part of your pre-mating checks.When it comes to the heifers, it’s a good idea to record body condition scores when you do your weighing. You can enter all this information on the web app, or if you have the Te Pari integration set up and the information is recorded in Te Pari, the information can flow through to FarmIQ. Contact the Support team if you have any questions about this!As calves are born and it�...

Updates to tasks on mobile

We have made some improvements to tasks and checklists in FarmIQ's new mobile app, making the task experience easier when you're out in the paddocks. The new task features:Users can mark requirements as 'not done' and add a note about why the requirement was not doneThere is a 'not done' filter to show results that are marked as not doneYou can now upload attachments to existing tasks/requirementsChecklist items can be marked as pass or failAny requirements that have an expiry date, will no...

Embracing knowledge and opportunities the key for FarmIQ Systems award winner

The future was foretold: 15 years ago, Dan Smith won the New Zealand Institute of Primary Industry Management (NZIPIM) student prize awarded to the student most likely to become a successful rural professional.Fast forward to last month and the prophecy did indeed come true as Dan was announced as the FarmIQ Systems Rural Professional of the Year for 2024.“So that's quite a nice start and end – it makes it a bit of a full circle,” says Dan.Dan grew up in the country, with a family business...

FarmIQ's Freshwater Farm Plan Tool a finalist in the B+LNZ Awards

We're thrilled that the FarmIQ Freshwater Farm Plan Tool is a finalist for the Datamars Livestock Technology Award in the Beef + Lamb New Zealand Awards! It's very humbling to be recognised for our work which aims to support farmers through whatever rules and regulations come their way - it's not easy being a farmer right now, but we're always working on ways to help them lighten the load and navigate the challenges. Congrats to Halter and Zoetis - the other two finalists for the award.Tara Hega...

Every dog has its day in FarmIQ

In FarmIQ, you now have the ability to add dogs and kennels as assets - especially handy if you are completing the Farm Assurance Plan or the Farm Assurance Plan Plus!The new dog features:Enter dogs and kennels as assetsCreate animal health treatments for your farm dogs from assets or tasks and use dog treatments from the products inventory A single treatment can be against some or all dogs allowing quick recording of treatments that are done at the same timeAdd notes or tasks about ma...

Product batching makes things easy

We know how painful it was entering or adjusting lines and lines of products individually, so we are happy to share that chemical batching can now be done in FarmIQ! We now allow batches to be setup at an organisation level which can be used on any farm within that organisation. This is ideal where there may be a few farms that share products between them as necessary.To make this auditable, the inventory reconciliation reports can also include the organisation products on hand when wanted....

New info-rich FARMAX reports in FarmIQ

The team has been working hard on enhancing the integration between FARMAX and FarmIQ, and we're excited to share that if you have both tools, you can now see FARMAX reports displayed in FarmIQ as info-rich widgets.How the new widgets workDashboard data will be pulled from your FARMAX Monitoring file (FARMAX Advantage customers), for you to show in a series of widgets in FarmIQ. The widgets cover a range of feed, production and GHG KPIs, and include both forecasts for the remainder of ...

Hard yards handled by FarmIQ with our Te Pari integration

Te Pari files can now be pulled into FarmIQ, saving you time and fuss entering the same information over and over again.If you want this integration turned on, please contact FarmIQ support and they will do it for you. Once this is done, FarmIQ will automatically pull in your Te Pari tag files and check if there is an event in FarmIQ associated with each of them.If there isn't already an event in FarmIQ associated with that file, FarmIQ will create a new event and automatically fill in all the i...

Winter hazards in FarmIQ

With winter well and truly here, so too is the snow, ice and rain – and those farm tracks are getting bloody slippery! With plenty of hazards to look out for, don't forget to check and update your hazards in FarmIQ. It's also a good idea to discuss any hazards on farm in your team meetings and record the meetings for any staff who are unable to make it. Remember to check out the new health and safety features on the new mobile app! Here’s a few how-to tips: View hazards on map (web...

Meet the team: Sarah Roberts

"Hello! I'm Sarah, the lead product designer at FarmIQ Systems Ltd. I have been contributing my skills to this company for nearly two years now. Originally from the north of the UK, I made the move to Aotearoa New Zealand a decade ago, putting down roots in Featherston, and I have never looked back. It's been an amazing journey, and I've developed a real passion for understanding farm life by engaging with our customers. You might have seen me around!   One of the highlights of my care...

New health and safety features on mobile stop important information from slipping through the cracks

People are the most important part of a farm business, and it's paramount to keep them safe and well. FarmIQ's new mobile features let you record health and safety information when you're out on the farm, so important information doesn't slip through the cracks. The new injury and safety incident features:Record an injury incident (someone got hurt) relating to staff, contractors and visitorsRecord a safety incident (non-injury incidents such as vehicle accidents or near-misses) relating to...

New FARMAX-FarmIQ award recognises rural professionals at the peak of their careers

FARMAX-FarmIQ and the New Zealand Institute of Primary Industries Management (NZIPIM) have today announced a brand-new accolade: the FarmIQ Rural Professional of the Year Award.The purpose of the award is to recognise industry professionals who have dedicated themselves to the agricultural industry and have contributed positively to their farmer clients, colleagues, and the rural field. The new award accompanies the existing FarmIQ Emerging Rural Professional of the Year Award, which celebr...

Get the job done faster with the new tasks features in FarmIQ

There's always jobs to do around the farm, and now it's much easier to keep track of what needs doing with our new tasks features on the FarmIQ mobile app. Create tasks and tick them off while out in the back blocks or down in the milking shed. The new mobile app features:Create tasks, assign to staff and add notesView tasks and mark tasks as completeAdd checklists so that staff can tick off one part at a time and mark as pass/failAssign the task to a category, such as health treatment, che...

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...

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...

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...

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...