A NEW supplier web portal giving UK suppliers a dashboard milk view of the milk supply while at the same time allowing individual animal level milk production forecasting and cost of production analysis has been launched by Lactalis.

The new system, powered by FarmWizard, the cloud-based Agri IT company, fully integrates with the Lactalis processing systems so all milk quality results appear in real time on the supplier’s dashboard. The portal allows the supplier to benchmark their milk quality data alongside other farms in the supplier group.

Milk statements can be accessed online with monthly income appearing automatically in the supplier’s cost of production module. The supplier can record farm costs and feed usage with farm profitability and margin over purchased feed values being automatically generated.

Dairy suppliers maintaining their herd’s data on the new portal will automatically be able to generate production forecasts based on calving and insemination data.

Farmers who utilize alternative data recording systems can upload milk recording files containing cow information so that any duplication of data is minimised. These individual production forecasts are then automatically uploaded to the Lactalis system to help them better plan sales.

Derek Kennedy, supply chain manager for the Fresh Milk Company (part of Lactalis Mclelland) said it is an exciting development for farmers looking to drive production efficiency: “We wanted to develop a tool that really helped our suppliers by utilising existing data and presenting it in a easy to use manner that enables them to make better business decisions.

“After talking to various IT companies we chose FarmWizard as they had a real pedigree, providing cloud based solutions to dairy farmers since 2004, and an exciting modern user interface.” he added