Dan and Jacqui have been hands-on managing the farm for five years while Dan’s father Mark managed the financial side of things. This changed when Dan took over the farm accounts and started looking around for the latest farm management and planning tool.
Moawhango Valley couple Dan and Jacqui Cottrell switched to Farm Focus end of June last year and Dan says the cloud-based application impressed right from the start.
‘There are plenty of advantages but basically, the user interface is clean and simple to navigate, the system is much faster to use and, we now have the ability to continuously code. You have done a great job!’
Dan and Jacqui run 3500 Texel composite breeding ewes, 1100 in-lamb hoggets’ and 140 breeding cows plus replacements on 600h of medium hill country on the Napier-Taupo Road, 25 minutes from Taihape or an hour and a half from Napier. They also grow lucerne and a couple of other winter crops.
Dan and Jacqui have been hands-on managing the farm for the last five years while Dan’s father Mark managed the financial side of things. This changed mid last year when Dan took over the farm accounts and started looking around for the latest farm management and planning tool.
“Farm Focus really impressed and, contrary to my first thoughts, making the switch was super easy. Basically, I just took off with it!
“Farm Focus is definitely the next generation of accounting software that farmers know and have trusted for years – now it's cloud-based, portable, easy to use and switch to.”
Dan says there’s still plenty of new stuff to pick up and invoice scanning is next on the list. “Basically, I’ve just been following my nose and with the help of the pop-ups I haven’t gone far wrong. The drag and drop option’s brilliant – it’s intuitive which is handy when you’re looking for options.”
While the time-saving features mean a lot less time in the office there’s still plenty happening in the Moawhango Valley!
Dan and Jacqui have three sons (Charlie (5), Will (3) and Zach (6 months), plus a couple of other significant strings to their stretched bow!
Dan and Jacqui are early adopters of innovative ideas, cue their early move to Farm Focus so, when they were considering other income streams, they looked outside the square and came across quinoa. They now crop quinoa under their own brand ‘Kiwi Quinoa’ – check out www.kiwiquinoa.com
And, when the shearers quarters were looking unloved Jacqui and Daniel’s mother Elizabeth decided to renovate and set up an Air B&B “Oruamatua Shearers Quarters.”
Check out Oruamatua Shearers Quarters, Countryside Luxury – Houses
