News

DairyNZ on-farm survey of workforce productivity

Date: November 30, 2022

QCONZ has joined forces with DairyNZ to help deliver their ‘on-farm survey of workforce productivity.’

Our team will visit approximately 150 farms nationwide conducting a 60–90-minute survey with farm owners and managers by March 2023.

With many dairy farms short staffed, farmers are looking for strategies and tools to help them become more efficient and productive.  The survey is looking to better understand where time is spent on farm at key periods throughout the season. The ultimate goal of this project is to provide a national dataset to allow NZ dairy farmers to benchmark their workforce productivity and identify opportunities to improve efficiency and save time on farm.

To achieve this, participating farmers will be surveyed to help determine:

– How many hours per year it takes to run different farming system.

– Where farm teams are prioritising their hours during key periods of the year.

– Identify relationships between the total hours worked and the systems, management, and technology factors, to understand how they influence workforce productivity.

We are thrilled to be able to deliver this work for DairyNZ.  With an end goal of smarter systems, happier and healthier staff and cows, and improved productivity, this will be a win-win for all.

Other news

In late October Chris Leach led an MPI dairy development training programme for farmers and extension officers in Pak Chong, Thailand. Pak Chong is the central region of Thailand, approximately a 2 ½ hour drive north of Bangkok, and is at the centre of the developing Thai Dairy Industry. 

We were thrilled to be a major sponsor of the New Zealand Association of Resource Management (NZARM) conference held in Christchurch in October.

We flew the QCONZ flag again this year at the annual Red Meat Sector Conference, jointly hosted by the Meat Industry Association and Beef + Lamb New Zealand Ltd.

As of 1 October, the QCONZ team will be delivering audits for the New Zealand Farm Assurance Programme (NZFAP). We have been working hard behind the scenes to get systems and processes in place, and from August farmers can expect to start hearing from us regarding audit bookings.

QCONZ proudly sponsored the Milk Quality Conference in Hamilton on the 4th and 5th July. Attended by 125, this was a great opportunity for engagement and collaboration between industry and service providers in the Dairy sector.

In June, the QCONZ team gathered in Hamilton for our biennial staff conference. We had a great time bringing our team together from all corners of New Zealand to celebrate, connect, and have fun! Day one of the conference kicked off with a business update and group sessions where each business unit shared recent work

QCONZ was proud to be a sponsor of the recent Central Plateau and BOP Dairy Industry Awards, where we celebrated the successes of local farmers and connected with future industry leaders.

The Team at QCONZ is very proud, and excited, to announce that we’ve been chosen by New Zealand Farm Assurance Incorporated (NZFAI) and their Members to deliver audits and associated services for their programmes from 1 October 2023.

A big thumbs up to the organisers of the 2022 ITENZ conference which provided a great networking and learning opportunity for Tertiary Providers. This conference themes of courage, collaboration, capability, and creativity reflected the changing times and the new opportunities for the education sector.

In August, 9 of our QCONZ team members attended a 5-day, hands-on, self-paced ‘NZMPTA ‘ISO Milking Machine Testing’ course workshop covering 11 theoretical and practical modules.