{"id":33,"date":"2011-11-05T10:39:32","date_gmt":"2011-11-05T10:39:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grasslands.kormak.co.uk\/blog\/?p=33"},"modified":"2017-07-10T07:48:45","modified_gmt":"2017-07-10T07:48:45","slug":"farm-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grasslands-uk.com\/blog\/farm-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Farm Update"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">As we head into a quieter period on the farm, the business side of my role as Unit Manager hots up. It is time to start reviewing the farms assets in preparation for setting next year\u2019s budget.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">This may sound like a rather dull task, but a good review of the assets on the farm and the work needed to maintain them in the coming year can reap rewards.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Dr Kay Carson from Streamline Farm Management has been a key person in implementing lean principles at farm level. She has worked very closely with me to develop a daily diary that records all needed in order to monitor the farms Key Performance Indicators (KPI\u2019s). Not only has Kay developed the diary but she has also worked closely with both myself and the Grasslands team to understand how to use, and interpret the data to ensure better informed decisions can be made on a daily basis.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">The whole ethos of the daily diary is that if we don\u2019t measure, we cannot manage. If we cannot manage, then we are not in control. How can we predict profits then if we are not in control?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Kay has also been instrumental in the implementation of annual asset reviews, explaining to me that:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201c<span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Profits are a measure of how efficiently resources are being used \u2013 and efficiency means maximising their value and minimising waste.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">She has also said: \u201cA full review of farm assets should happen annually, so that you can plan improvements, implement changes, check your progress and take actions.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">The main areas to consider in the grazing-based system used at Grasslands are:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Herd Health<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Tracks and buildings<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Soil and grassland<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Labour<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Machinery and equipment<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Feed and forage<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Fertility<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Milking and parlour<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201c<span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">For this type of grazing-based business, the tracks, soil and grassland are more important than housing and machinery, but efficiencies can be gained throughout most businesses,\u201d added Kay.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">These are therefore the areas we have been focusing on, along with herd health, specifically around calf scours, Johne\u2019s, mastitis and lameness.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-US\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As we head into a quieter period on the farm, the business side of my role as Unit Manager hots up. It is time to start reviewing the farms assets in preparation for setting next year\u2019s budget. This may sound like a rather dull task, but a good review of the assets on the farm [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grasslands-uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grasslands-uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grasslands-uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grasslands-uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grasslands-uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/grasslands-uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35,"href":"https:\/\/grasslands-uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions\/35"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grasslands-uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grasslands-uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grasslands-uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grasslands-uk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}