LIC upgrades MINDA for seamless industry collaboration integration

LIC has introduced new functionality to its MINDA software, facilitating enhanced collaboration with key industry partners to reduce the compliance burden on farmers and save them time, according to a statement from the company.

The new data-sharing capabilities enable farmers to transfer animal information directly from their MINDA account to other industry applications. LIC Chief Information Officer Dhaya Sivakumar stated that these upgrades are expected to deliver significant time savings to farmers, who often find themselves needing to provide the same information to multiple industry players.

According to a recent DairyNZ survey, New Zealand farmers spend approximately an hour each day on administrative tasks, including paperwork and reporting. By leveraging data-sharing capabilities, LIC aims to ease this compliance burden, allowing farmers to meet reporting requirements more quickly and focus more on on-farm activities.

MINDA, used by over 90% of dairy farmers in New Zealand, offers a secure platform for data sharing, with farmers having control over how their information is managed and shared. Sivakumar remarked, "We have big plans for making our farmer shareholders' data work harder for them. Now that we've laid the foundations, we're excited to partner with more companies to turn that vision into reality."

Soon, Fonterra farmers will be able to prefill their Farm Dairy Records with animal information from MINDA, while farmers supplying Open Country will be able to do the same for their Farm Environmental Plan, thereby reducing manual data entry. Additionally, collaboration with OSPRI will integrate Animal Status Declarations (ASD) into MINDA, allowing farmers to manage the administrative requirements for animal movements in a single location.

Blair Smith, LIC MINDA Business Manager, sees these integrations as a significant step forward for MINDA, building on its existing integration with cow wearables partners. "We're now partnered with eight leading wearables providers and have 400,000 cows in MINDA that are connected to their wearables through that integration," Smith said. This integration eliminates the need for farmers to navigate data from two applications, providing a clear view of their animals' performance, health, and fertility where it's most needed.

Looking ahead, farmers will soon be able to populate stock movements and reconciliations in the New Zealand farm reporting software Trev, directly from MINDA. Brenna Townshend, Trev Chief Growth Officer, expressed excitement about the partnership with LIC, aiming to simplify farmers' lives by reducing the friction associated with data collection, storage, and validation. "By connecting the dots across datasets, we're able to provide our mutual customers with the right tools to save time," Townshend added.

Smith revealed that LIC is also in discussions with other farm management and accounting software providers, as well as additional milk processors, adopting an open-door policy for partnerships that aim to facilitate farmers' operations. "By breaking down data silos and getting different systems to communicate effectively, we can help farmers reclaim valuable time and improve the accuracy of data used in the dairy sector," Smith stated.

Farmers can manage these integrations through a new partners page in MINDA, providing them with streamlined access to the various functionalities introduced.