Trudy and Simon Hales are the fourth generation to farm Kereru, a 970 ha sheep and beef farm at Weber, near Dannevirke. In 2019 they were Horizons Regional Supreme Winners in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards, and in 2020 they were named Tararua Sheep and Beef Farmer of the Year. Behind the awards is a business run to a clear plan, and in mid-2019 they switched their books from Xero to Farm Focus to keep it simple.
“From the entering and admin point of view it’s so much quicker and easier to find your way around!”
Kereru runs breeding and finishing stock on rolling to steep country, with most of the Akitio River fenced off and native plantings grown from Trudy’s own seedling nursery. The business has clear goals and KPIs, and since 2016 an advisory group of their consultant, bank manager and accountant has met every quarter to review the plan and how they’re tracking. With that much planning, the numbers need to be easy to keep up to date.
When we spoke with Trudy in 2020, she said farm management software can be confusing. For their business, the answer was Farm Focus.
“We were using Xero but switched to Farm Focus because we found coding, particularly using our own code names, so easy. And uploading files … those lines are super-fast in comparison!”
For Trudy, it comes down to software built around farming, not adapted to it.
“Using a software programme designed by farmers for farmers makes all the difference!”
Today their Farm Focus file has bank feeds running, their Farmlands account connected and their budgets in use, so the everyday admin stays quick and the plan stays current.
Every Farm Focus customer gets free onboarding to help move their books across, and phone support from a team that knows farming, in New Zealand and Australia.
Image courtesy of NZ Farm Life Media.
