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How shared data supports good agricultural practice and marketing

Agricultural supply chains have become increasingly complex and for those serving discerning markets, increasingly demanding. Product integrity, safety, and quality attributes are moving from being based on reassurances to evidence and audit. In the past, a handshake, a solid conversation, a trusted voice on the phone would have provided the necessary confidence and trust in […]

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How models can improve your farming decisions

Not many careers carry the same challenges of complexity as farming. Politics requires substantial adaptability. Consumer marketing and the share market both have challenges of trying to forecast what is erratic and volatile. Manufacturing requires controls over process and product quality. Farming combines all of these, and requires complex, multi-factor decisions that deal with climate […]

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Taking sheep breeding to the next level

I was privileged to attend and speak at the B+LNZ Genetics Sheep Breeders Forum in Napier, New Zealand recently. A gathering of some 150 ram breeders and industry genetics specialists, the forum allowed breeders to share and discuss common issues and concerns, to provide feedback to researchers, and to learn the latest approaches and techniques.

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Involving Farmers in the Data Conversation

In my previous posts on this subject, I wrote about how New Zealand farming organisations and farmers are attempting to improve how data flows and is used in the agricultural sector. We are addressing this with a Code of Practice for Farm Data that addresses issues of transparency and good data practices, along with a common vocabulary that […]

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Common vocabularies to describe information

In my last post I discussed the progress to date on the Farm Data Code of Practice, a New Zealand initiative that is receiving a level of interest internationally. The Code of Practice is intended to support the development of trust between primary producers (farmers) and organisations that collect and manage data – and between organisations as well.

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Progress on Farm Data Exchange

Many people will be aware that the team at Rezare Systems has been working alongside others in the New Zealand dairy and red meat sectors to support easier and more frequent interchange of farm data. Our particular focus has been on information that supports New Zealand’s pastoral agriculture industries, but much of the work has […]

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Practical skills for a commercial software career

In the last year a number of new people have joined the Rezare Systems team. As part of our involvement with local Universities and discussions with others in the industry, we’ve done some thinking about the sort of skills that we think are useful in building a career in commercial software development – and in […]

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How we can manage nutrients on farms

It’s been a couple of years now since the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Dr Jan Wright, wrote her paper describing the fresh water nutrient challenges faced by in New Zealand (and it’s update). If you’re based in New Zealand and have not yet read it, I encourage you to do so – it is a clear and […]

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New technologies for agriculture

In the next couple of weeks my Rezare Systems colleagues and I will be attending the MobileTECH conference in both the Gold Coast, Australia and Auckland, New Zealand. The programme is full of exciting presentations on robotics, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones), and remote sensing. It’s great to see a number of our primary sector partners […]

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Mobile technologies will change the face of farming

The need for better mobility in on-farm technologies is not new. When I started working with livestock recording and farm management tools in the early 1990s, some of the sheep breeders showed me their Toshiba and Compaq “portable” computers which they lugged out to woolsheds for recording. This stunning advance allowed them to look up […]