Dairy Insight’s Reporting Season Springs Into Life

13 October 2004

Dairy Insight’s Reporting Season Springs Into Life

Dairy InSight, the dairy industry’s primary funder of research and industry-good activities, will today kick off a series of meetings to outline its investment portfolio and strategic direction.

Peter Bodeker, Chief Executive of Dairy InSight says, “It is important for Dairy InSight to communicate the value and benefits we are achieving from the dairy industry levy with farmers, industry stakeholders and Government.

Our investment projects are chosen following robust analysis and with the industry’s benefit as a first priority. We are concerned to get value from every dollar we spend and so are farmers - our business and investment practice reflects this respect for the farmer’s contributions.”

Bodeker says “This year we received 209 applications for funding. Twenty three were screened out for not meeting industry-good criteria and the remaining 186 were assessed by an independent panel of technical experts. From this, 116 were recommended for investment and the Dairy InSight Board approved 99 with a total value of $43.4 million.”

Investments made in the 2004 – 05 funding period will not only have to produce a measurable return to dairy farmers but also clearly fit within the Strategic Framework.

The Strategic Framework for Dairy Farming’s Future was jointly adopted by the Boards of Dairy InSight and Dexcel in May 2004. It involves industry-wide and industry supported targets with the vision of “World’s Best in Dairying” and the purpose of enhancing the sustainable competitive advantage of New Zealand dairy farmers. The four platforms of the Strategic Framework are; Farm Productivity, Farming Business, Community Interface and Operational Capabilities.

Bodeker says, “The investments also have the potential to leverage with other investors. They represent a balance of long and short term investments and risk, and display support for pro-active and innovative investment in people. It’s about building and linking capability to gain a better return.

A particular focus for 2004-05 will be management of benefits. The Board has committed to developing measures of economic return which we want to apply to the levy spend. The intention is to have more control over the benefits we gain. We see ourselves as investors. In time, we will also be looking for partnerships with co-funders to multiply the effectiveness of the levy dollar.”

The Reporting Season will stretch over the next few months as Dairy InSight’s staff and board undertake regional visits to dairying communities.

Bodeker says, “We invite farmers from around the country to contact Dairy InSight and we will endeavour to visit their area. In this way Dairy InSight can prove it really is ‘doing the industry-good’.”

From mid October Applications for Funding for the 2005/2006 year will be available on the Dairy InSight website www.dairyinsight.co.nz. Information concerning the application process can also be found on the website and this year the closing date will be 19th November.

“We look forward to seeing further important and innovative projects coming through the investment process, to compliment on-going projects that will be reaching interim targets and final stages of development.” says Bodeker.

ENDS

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