Posts

Harnessing technology and data-driven management for sustainable farming

Reading Time: 5 minutes

The integration of technology, satellites, and data management into agriculture has opened up exciting possibilities for the future, especially in the context of sustainable agriculture. For sustainable dairy farming, leveraging data, satellite insights, and advanced tools to optimize resource utilization, reduce waste, and protect the environment, is the future. The Trace & Save system, which has data-driven management at the centre of it, uses multiple measures of on-farm indicators to attain a trustworthy, holistic measure of agricultural sustainability. Let Trace & Save help you on your data-driven management journey towards sustainable agriculture.

Journey through farmland

What progress have farms participating with Trace & Save made over the past 10 years?

Reading Time: 10 minutes

Looking back over ten years of collecting data from pasture-based dairy farmers, it is encouraging to see that there has been progress made with regards to improved sustainability. Two of the main goals of Trace & Save is to support farmers to farm in a more sustainable manner and to create evidence of progress where it is being made.

Arrows

How Trace & Save determines where a farm is on their sustainability journey

Reading Time: 4 minutes

We have recently implemented a new assessment which assigns each farm participating with Trace & Save a sustainability status. The purpose of this status is not necessary to categorise each farm and say whether they are good or not. It is rather to identify where the farm is on their sustainability journey.

Making a business case for sustainable dairy production

Reading Time: < 1 minute

The purpose of this business case is to investigate the association between the economic and environmental facets of sustainability related to milk production on dairy farms in South Africa.

Data and technology

Has data and technology become a crutch?

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Pasture-based dairy: what is possible?

Reading Time: 8 minutes

I am challenging farmers to think differently about how their farm systems are set up, especially in terms of their reliance on concentrates and fertiliser inputs. There is an alternative approach to the current convention.

Intercropping maize and beans

Stacking enterprises: The next level of sustainability

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Stacking enterprises not only adds an extra stream of revenue but in most cases can reduce or eliminate certain expenses.

Earthworms in soil

Keeping your eye on the prize

Reading Time: 3 minutes

I would challenge any farmer that desires to improve their farm to think about the “why” behind the regenerative agriculture approach. What is the prize?

Farming sector: The backbone of society

Reading Time: 4 minutes

There is no time like the present when it comes to educating the public about agriculture and the role it plays in our lives. It cannot be overstated how crucial it is for more people to understand agriculture and not be influenced by common misconceptions.

Where animals are happy, the food is healthy

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Trace and Save’s sustainability measures ensure the consumer that the box of milk they buy is sourced from a farm that treats animals and the environment well.