Pattie and Tony O’Boyle farm sheep and cattle on hill country at Tinui, half an hour from Masterton on the road to Castlepoint. They plan well ahead, so they can weigh up opportunities and allow for the things farms can’t control, such as weather and prices.
“In our business there’s plenty that can make or break expectations so keeping an eye on the future is important to us.”
Why plan so far ahead?
For Pattie, knowing where you’re headed matters more than where you’ve been.
“Now the detail is all at our fingertips and we can foresee a bump in the road ahead and adapt our plan accordingly. The whole point of planning is being able to see new opportunities and be more deliberate in positioning the business to take advantage of these.”
“This is our business; our livelihood depends on it. We’re heavily invested in making sure it succeeds so any tools that will help along the way are important to us.”
Planning together
“Because Tony and I both use Farm Focus we seem to communicate more about where we’re headed. While I manage data capture and compliance we plan together, and both rely on and use the reporting functionality.”
Staff, suppliers, their accountant and farm advisers feel more involved too.
No end-of-month crunch
“Time …saving time is right up there. We all work off our devices now so if I’m sitting waiting to pick up the family from somewhere I can log in and catch up on invoice matching.”
“I have a variety of roles within the family, the farm business, and the community, so efficient use of my time is right up there and any application that helps save time is important. I’m in Farm Focus most days which enables conversations around the future, how we can work smarter rather than being stuck in what has already happened. We both agree this has been an unexpected but positive change for our business.”
Still planning ahead today
The O’Boyles have been with Farm Focus from the beginning and still plan ahead in it. Bank feeds, Farmlands and PaySauce flow straight in, the Invoice Scanner handles the bills, and GST is filed every month. Since July 2026, they can also ask the AI Farm Assistant quick questions about their actuals, plans and reports.
Every Farm Focus customer gets free onboarding and phone support from a team that knows farming, in New Zealand and Australia.
