New resource launched to help measure farm business performance
A new resource designed to help farmers measure their farm business performance has been launched by the Red Meat Profit Partnership (RMPP).
The Key Performance Indicators (KPI) booklet includes detailed descriptions of 16 core KPIs, some example calculations and resources for farmers who are considering how improvements can be made to their farm business.
The KPIs, which were developed in conjunction with a group of industry professionals and farmers, include lambing percentage, ewe flock efficiency, calving percentage, fawn weaning percentage, gross farm revenue per effective hectare and live weight gain.
Malcolm Bailey, chair of the RMPP, says understanding how a farm business is performing is critical to making decisions on how to improve productivity and profitability.
‘‘It is important farmers know where they are now, so they are able to set targets and then see how their actual performance measures up against these targets.
‘‘There are many possible measures which can be used to analyse the performance of a farm business, however this resource focuses on a core set of KPIs that we encourage farmers to use as the starting point to understand how their farm business is performing.’’
Key Performance Indicators are sometimes called Benchmarks, says Mr Bailey.
‘‘Although the two use the same measures, their purposes are different. KPIs are used when farmers are setting on-farm targets such as increasing the lambing percentage, or the number of lambs sent to processors at weaning.
‘‘Benchmarks are used to help them to compare their businesses against other farms, for example, against a region or other farms of the same farm class.
‘‘Overall, KPIs and benchmarking against others are both tools to help farmers identify where they are doing well and where they need to improve. KPIs can help farmers identify the great things they are already doing and the things where there are opportunities to make positive changes.’’
Farmax general manager Gavin McEwen says: ‘‘We’re pleased to have worked with the RMPP and alongside industry to identify this core set of KPIs and incorporate them into our decision support tools.
‘‘One of the key fundamentals of top performing red meat farm businesses is having goals and a good understanding of key drivers of profitability and keeping track of them.’’
For more information please visit the Beef + Lamb New Zealand Knowledge Hub, https:/ /beeflambnz.com/knowledge-hub or email admin@rmpp.co.nz to request a copy.
What is Red Meat Partnership?
RMPP is a seven-year Primary Growth Partnership programme that is working to help the red meat sector increase productivity and profitability.
The programme is funded by ten partners – government and private sector (Ministry for Primary Industries, ANZ, Alliance, ANZCO, Beef + Lamb New Zealand, Blue Sky Meats, Greenlea Premier Meats, Progressive Meats, Rabobank and Silver Fern Farms). RMPP works alongside farmers and sector businesses to develop, test and introduce new ways of engaging with information and technology.
FARMAX is a computer-based decision support tool for pastoral famers, which helps plan, monitor, analyse and forecast farm operations.
Borne out of 25 years of research on biological farm systems by AgResearch, Farmax is now the largest supplier of New Zealand tailored on-farm decision support software in the country. Profit