DAERA Management Notes: Information technology

Farmers and growers are clearly seeing the benefits of doing their business online with over 15,000 individuals now registered to use DAERA online services. 62% of Single Applications Forms were submitted online last year and 63% of all calf births are currently notified online.

In the December IT Management Note I discussed some of the services available through DAERA online services namely, APHIS Online, Single Application and Maps, CAFRE Nutrient Calculators, BovIS, CAFRE Benchmarking and the Farm Investment Planner. This month I will highlight some of the other DAERA online services available to you which are all free, easy to use, available 24/7, safe and secure.

CAFRE Farm Business Planner

The CAFRE Farm Business Planner is a new online service that allows you to create two financial business plans for your farm over a five year period; one is a baseline plan where there is no significant investment or change made, the second includes significant change or investment. The reports generated allow you to determine how a change in the farm business would affect the figures over the five year period, helping determine the feasibility of an investment. The reports are also useful when seeking a loan for an investment from banks and other finance providers.

PigPAC

Pig farmers need to know the performance of their farm on an ongoing basis to be able to respond to changing conditions. Pig Performance, Analysis and Comparison (PigPAC) brings together a number of support tools to help pig farmers make informed decisions.

PiGIS is a tried and tested programme that allows you to assess the quality of pig carcasses over time and benchmark with others in the industry. Automatic texts sent after each delivery of pigs ensures you are kept up to date on carcase quality.

Many pig farmers have excellent records for their sow herds but the corresponding information for growing and finishing pigs is lacking. The Batch Performance Calculator allows the live weight gain and food conversion to be accurately determined for pigs finished in all-in all-out systems.

Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) entitlements

From early March you will be able to transfer BPS entitlements using the online Transfer Service where it is a straightforward transfer (sale, gift or lease) from one farm business to another, with no business change or inheritance involved. This is a convenient, quick and easy service which provides automatic transfer of entitlements. To do so you will need the Business ID and Entitlement Transfer ID of the person you are transferring your entitlements to. Once completed you will get a confirmation email straight away. If you want the transfer to take effect for the 2017 BPS scheme year the closing date for completion of the online transfer is Tuesday 2 May.

CAFRE Business Tools

CAFRE have developed a wide range of decision support applications to help farmers and growers make day-to-day decisions relating to their business in areas ranging from animal health to nutrition and renewable energy.

An example of one of the applications available is the Total Mixed Ration (TMR) M+ application, which enables a dairy farmer to calculate the ‘maintenance plus milk production’ (M+) potential of the diet being fed to a group of cows (either TMR or silage only). This allows milking parlour feed levels to be set on a ‘feed to yield basis’ (above the calculated M+ of the ration).

To find out more about these services, up and coming training courses or how to register for DAERA online services: 028 9442 6699, [email protected], Text Easy to 67300, www.daera-ni.gov.uk/onlineservices