Livestock Improvement Corporation Lecture:
Farm performance measurement - Linking monitoring to business strategy
W.J. Parker
AgResearch, Ruakura, Private Bag 3123, Hamilton, New Zealand
Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production. 1999, 59: 6-13
Farm monitoring and evaluation are elements within the control
function of management. Control is directly linked to planning: through
planning performance, targets are set and outcomes are measured and
assessed relative to these. The use of formal monitoring by farmers has
been lower than expected. To redress this, more emphasis is now being
placed on tying farm performance measures (or indicators) to business
strategy. The aim is to transparently connect day-to-day (operational)
management to the goals of the manager/owner. This shift in the focus of
farm monitoring and evaluation concentrates performance measurement
around a limited number of factors that are critical to the successful
execution of strategy. Data collection and analysis is therefore
directly integrated with adding value to the farm business. It also
facilitates the correct application of benchmarking to continually
improve performance through farmer learning. The balanced scorecard
provides a mechanism to integrate farm monitoring results with farm
mission, strategy and target performance in a condensed and easy to read
format. This should further encourage farmers to monitor and benchmark
their production and management systems in order to gain feedback for
evaluating decisions (learning) and help them to continually update
their strategy to sustain high performance.
Keywords: NZSAPAB;
farm monitoring; performance measures; farm business strategy; balanced scorecard
Last Updated 06-08-1999
