The NZIPIM 2024 National Conference, held at Mystery Creek, Waikato, on the 19th and 20th of August, brought together industry professionals to discuss the future of New Zealand’s agricultural landscape. With the theme “Tools to Shape our Future,” the conference featured sessions on global perspectives, emerging technologies, sustainability, Māori agribusiness, and more. Attendees engaged with speakers and participated in discussions aimed at equipping them with tools for sustainable, successful businesses in the primary industry.

QCONZ was one of the exhibitor sponsors, featuring our FreshWater Farm Plan system at our trade stand. Managed by Josh, Justin, and Tash, the stand drew considerable interest, thanks to its new banners and an engaging promotional video. This exposure allowed us to engage with rural professionals and highlight how our system can support their work, particularly amid ongoing government changes.

Justin and Josh also attended the awards dinner, where they networked with key contacts, including a rural professional consultant familiar with our system. The dinner was an excellent opportunity to reconnect with Jo Finer, Caroline Jack, and Fiona Hatzilamprou from NZIPIM. We have also planned a webinar for early 2025 to further promote our FreshWater Farm Plan system to NZIPIM members.

Overall, the conference was a positive experience, reinforcing our dedication to innovative and sustainable farming practices.

Fieldays 2024 was a fantastic opportunity to present our FreshWater Farm Plan (FWFP) tool and reconnect with our clients and wider industry stakeholders. This year, our team was thrilled to be part of the Sustainability Hub, where we showcased our digital solution designed to simplify the creation of freshwater farm plans for farmers and consultants.

Our Digital Solution

Our FWFP tool is developed to assist farmers in taking care of the environment while meeting regulatory requirements, pending the Government’s final position on the freshwater quality improvement framework. The tool offers a cost-effective, step-by-step process that can be used independently by farmers or with the assistance of a farm consultant to develop comprehensive plans.

Enthusiastic Reception

The enthusiasm and interest from farmers and industry colleagues were high. Justin Moss, our General Manager of IT, delivered daily presentations on the FWFP tool and the role of smart software in evaluating risks and actions on farms. These sessions were well received and sparked meaningful discussions.

Justin remarked, “There was a wide range of technology and technological services available for farmers at Fieldays. It was great to see our FreshWater Farm Plan system recognized among these tools as being user-friendly, time-saving, and at only $199 per year, affordable.”

Justin Moss and Josh Wheeler from QCONZ took a trip to Parliament in May to meet with Hon. Andrew Hoggard to discuss Freshwater Farm Plans (FWFPs). We were excited to share our learnings from the past few years.

Recently, our team has been dedicated to creating a digital solution to streamline FWFP processes and make them more cost-effective. Through collaboration with farmers, councils, farm consultants, industry experts, and our clients, we’ve gathered valuable insights that have informed the design and development of effective digital tools for freshwater plan development.

During our meeting with Associate Minister Hoggard and his team, we discussed some of these ideas and insights. We also proposed broader opportunities to simplify the FWFP framework and further reduce costs.

We believe that by improving the FWFP system and providing farmers with clear guidance and cost-effective tools, we can showcase the excellent work done by farmers to date and establish the necessary planning to enhance and safeguard this vital natural resource for generations to come.

A DIGITAL TOOL FOR FRESHWATER FARM PLANNING
– Josh Wheeler COO QCONZ

Over the last 5 years QCONZ has been busy developing its people and IT solutions to support our clients with the increased focus around Freshwater quality.

Our core business is auditing and we are now positioning ourselves to provide audit services for FWFP’s. Recently we have been appointed as the Nationwide Auditing body for the New Zealand Farm Assurance
Program (NZFAP) for the Meat and Wool Industry. When this work is considered alongside our existing
auditing work for the dairy industry, we will now be delivering audit services on over 20,000 farms
nationally. We see a real opportunity for our nationwide team to delivery FWFP audits alongside our
other audit programmes, ensuring cost effective delivery and reduced audit burden. Our audit team
digital solutions will make this a seamless process for the Farmers, Growers and Councils.

Click the link below to read The full article in NZARMs broadsheet issue 43 page 18.

Click to read full article

Freshwater Farm Plan (FWFP) software was showcased at the Fieldays earlier this month.  

The product made it into the Innovation tent after a pre-selection as a finalist for the Innovations Awards.  FWFP software (in development) was entered into the ‘early stage’ category.  

This was an opportunity to discuss the industry and requirements and how our products fit as part of the massive suite of tools and services that NZ farmers are presented with. Verifies that we have a couple of unique and valuable products that are worthwhile for farmers. Additionally, it significantly raised our profile with other companies – they all know who we are and what we can offer. – Justin Moss.

Traditionally this event takes place in June, so foot traffic this year was noticeably lighter with milking in full swing paired with farm staff shortages.  What we lost in foot traffic however, was made up with some great B2B networking opportunities.

A big thank you to Gavin and our design team in Tauranga who delivered two great looking stands and the promotional literature to go with it.  Thank you also to the dedicated team who helped Josh and Justin showcase our software over the four days and help raise the profile of QCONZ.

QCONZ was thrilled to be a major sponsor of the New Zealand Association of Resource Management (NZARM) conference which took place between 17 -19 October in Wellington.

We joined the likes of (among others) DairyNZ, Manaaki Whenua (Landcare Research) and the Ministry for the Environment in our support of, and commitment to Environmental Sustainability.

Josh Wheeler, Murray Pedley and Tash Pivott attended and staffed the QCONZ stand and showcased the Freshwater Farm Plan system we are developing. This will be an affordable and user-friendly tool which will allow farmers and farm consultants to electronically build a farm plan to meet regulatory requirements and manage environmental risk on farm. Industry representatives showed great support for the system which we will be launching at the National Fieldays this year.

NZARM is a member-based organisation whose goal is to promote the philosophy, science, and practice of resource management in New Zealand, with particular emphasis on land and water resource management.

Click here to learn more visit https://nzarm.org.nz/