Miraka and WelFarm have joined forces to simplify administrative tasks for farmers and empower them to focus on their core responsibilities.
The collaboration aims to integrate digital systems and automate the verification process, reducing manual checks and allowing for improved herd health monitoring and performance comparison.
Recognising the shared goal of supporting farmers, our widely used digital portal, WelFarm, is now integrated with Miraka’s systems capturing information related to their excellence programme, Te Ara Miraka.
This integration will allow the verification process to flow automatically between WelFarm and Miraka systems, eliminating the need for manual checks to adhere to Te Ara Miraka standards during on-farm assessments.
It all came about when Miraka’s general manager of milk supply, Chad Hoggard, visited a supplier and quickly learnt of the double-handling of data to take it from one system to another to verify their standards had been met.
He could see huge potential to reduce that administrative load and was keen to work collaboratively with WelFarm, and others, to support their supplier base.
The current integration confirms there is a current Animal Health Plan in place and that at least two body condition scores have been performed throughout the season. Automatic reporting captures those verifications and fires them to where they need to be, without any additional input from the farmer or veterinarian.
WelFarm is a proactive programme vets use to monitor herd health and wellbeing, track progress, and compare performance at regional and national levels.
It utilises a web-based tool and within the programme some of the necessary data required by Miraka suppliers to adhere to Te Ara Miraka standards is already being collected. By leveraging this integration, farmers will have access to automated benefits and improved efficiency in managing their farms.
It is also important to highlight that automated data flow is purely a byproduct of the core value for using WelFarm. The programme is centered on proactive herd health monitoring, empowering farmers and vets with benchmarking data and bringing information together for a high-level overview to identify where there might be opportunities and monitor progress.
In many cases it’s not the actual data that needs to transfer too, it could be a simple verification that something has occurred and is available if requested but ultimately allowing farmers, and their support networks, to focus on their core responsibilities.
Having the healthiest herd possible is becoming even more important with the focus on efficiency and reducing environmental impacts, so a simple approach can help farmers identify where they should focus their efforts.
For around the cost of 1kg of milksolid per cow per season, there is a wealth of information vets can capture about their farmer’s herds, using the information to work with them to target support and reduce costs in other areas.
And as more information is needed to satisfy other parties, the easier it will be if we can get more integrations established. Vets are a trusted source of information worldwide, so having an automated link with a vet-led system holds a lot of value.
As more parts of the supply chain realise the benefits of integrations, we will see more being established.
This integration is limited to Miraka processors, but it should encourage farmers to talk to their processors about any integration opportunities that could support the sharing of information.
This article first appeared in our sister publication, Dairy Farmer.
