New Zealand farmers have earned a global competitive edge by insisting on demonstrable results before investing in new tools, says Nigel Smellie, accounting and business advisory partner at Findex, and the discipline offers a blueprint for any business.

“The cautious approach is not about being slow when it comes to adopting new technology,” he says.

“It’s about taking the time to make sure that the technology farmers are adopting is going to provide a real-world solution to the problems they’re facing on farms, so that it improves the efficiencies they’re able to gain and their livelihoods overall.”

Farmers have always navigated this, he says.

“It’s not just the hot flavour or the shiny new thing of the month; if we think back, we started with horse and cart, then moved to tractors, and now we’ve got GPS auto steer – all these have been improvements along the way to help farmers out.

“A key question they need to be asking is when they go out on farm at the beginning of the day: what have I got to do today, and what are the pain points where a little bit of tech might be able to help and make that less painful?

“A number of the earlier technologies have failed,” he says.

“They came out with a lot of fancy dashboards… but when it came to actually hooking the farmer to putting that into practice, it was clunky and hard to use.”

He says AI has accelerated the curve.

“A couple of years ago, we’d never heard of it, and it’s just ramping up and taking off.

“It’s another tool we can use to get some useful information, and if we can use that AI to generate real-world solutions to problems farmers are facing, then I think that’s brilliant.”

He says the benchmark stays constant whatever the technology.

“It doesn’t matter what the tech is, the outcome for the farmer is always the same – we’re producing food and fibre for the rest of the world.

“If we can do that more efficiently, then I think that’s fantastic.”

CountryWide CONNECT with Andy Thompson & Sarah Perriam-Lampp is our daily rural show livestreamed from 11am-1pm. Visit country-wide.co.nz on how to watch/listen or download the CountryWide CONNECT mobile app, available on Apple iOS and Android.