The Value of Collecting and Recording Production Data

A wise man once said, “you can’t manage what you don’t measure”. This is a commonly quoted phrase in the business world and it is as applicable to agriculture as it is to any other industry or business. It is a phrase that is hard to argue with and has led to the success of countless business around the world.

However, many members of the modern generation of farmer seem to lack the inclination to record valuable production data, which can be used to measure, monitor and manage farm business performance. Whether it is lack of skills, poor attention to detail, disinterest, or lack of time is up for debate. Alternatively, it could be brought about by the propensity to use mobile devices on which it is easy to make a quick un-formatted record that can be easily recorded, but not easily formatted, labelled or filed in a place where it can be recalled and used for future calculation or comparison.

Lambing percentage is a good example of where good data can be used to increase production. Accurate recording of lambs weaned as a percentage of ewes joined could help to identify an issue, which if addressed might improve lambing percentage by say 5%. At $120/head this equates to an additional $6,000 in gross income per thousand ewes joined.

In a cropping context, applying some double rate and nil rate strips of each fertiliser application and then recording the yield and quality response, would enable the return on investment in fertiliser and spreading costs to be calculated.  

Keeping good records is not hard and it allows businesses to benchmark themselves against themselves, from one year to the next and to monitor the impact of changes to the production system. It does require some discipline and at times it will require some small inconvenience, while tasks are put on hold to count or record data, but this should be viewed not as an inconvenience but as an essential part of doing business, no different to marking a lamb or spraying a crop.

In the corporate world such recording is not optional and failing to record production data would be inexcusable. To date in family farming, there has been mostly no big brother to enforce such a management practice. Moving forward, this may change. In a recent meeting with the major banks, all have commented on the lack of historical production data available for livestock systems and all have requested to see more of this data in the future. As lending conditions tighten and banks review their risk profiles, it is conceivable that more favourable rates may be given to businesses which can present a case that is backed up by reliable production, income and cost data.