Management and production features of ARGOS farms and differences between production systems

Farm and Orchard Management, in ARGOS, is studied from a management systems approach with three main areas of study; economic, social and the environment. Economics includes production (both financial and non-financial) through to socio economics of production systems. Social studies the ‘people’ implications of the systems, motivational drivers, life cycles, whilst the environment objective looks at the impact/implications of the farming system on the environment. Boundaries of the three objectives overlap, leading to overarching research that is a transdisciplinary study of farming systems. It was recognised that generic descriptors, of the farms under study, need to be supplied to the three objectives and this led to a fourth ‘sub’ objective, the farm/orchard management objective. The role of the management objective includes collecting physical and managerial style data and, where suitable, the preliminary analysis of this data. The main purpose of this synthesis report is to provide an overview of the type of management and production data that have been collected and key differences between production systems (also referred to as ‘panels’) within each sector. For kiwifruit and dairy, data up to the 2007/08 season is reported.This work was funded by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology (Contract Number AGRB0301). ARGOS also acknowledges financial assistance for the areas of work reported in this report from; ZESPRI International Ltd, Merino New Zealand Inc., COKA (Certified Organic Kiwifruit Growers Association) and a meat packing company