AT the annual Wales Farming Conference in Builth Wells, Wisconsin dairy farmer Lloyd Holterman insisted that every farm needed key performance indicators (KPIs) to progress.“Farmers have to constantly improve their businesses to move forward but if they don’t have a measurement, a goal, they are never going to know how to get there. That applies to all farms, whatever their scale, big or small."
One of his goals was to achieve 1.7 litres of milk from 1kg of dry matter from the herd of 1,072 Holsteins he runs with his wife, Daphne. Once they achieved that, they focused on maintaining yield by measuring feed efficiency and other KPIs monthly.
“Don’t give up on a goal when you have achieved it," Mr Holterman told more than 200 delegates attending the conference. That message was shared by agri-food consultant Dr Jonathan Birnie, who advised farmers to identify the single biggest limiting factor in their business and to work out how to overcome it, seeking the help of others if needed. He predicts exciting opportunities for Welsh farmers as demand increases from a growing world population and, even though there will be challenges too, the challenges of their global competitors will be greater due to factors including drought, pests, disease and soil loss impacting on yields from agriculture.
“The UK’s ability to grow grass and grain is significant, output and productivity can increase and we have 70 million consumers sitting beside us."
He urged farmers to use data to manage, compare and justify their business decisions, using large retailers as a case in point. Those retailers had become dominant because they had collected data on consumers and used it to manage their businesses, he said.
Other speakers at the conference included Chris Moon OBE, a former farmer and British Army officer who lost an arm and a leg while clearing landmines for a charity in Africa.