It’s 25 years since the first iteration of Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s weekly e-diaries arrived in the in-boxes of Southern South Island sheep and beef farmers.
Today, while much has changed in terms of connectivity and the names and structure of the levy-funded organisations representing sheep and beef farmers, the weekly e-diary remains one of the primary ways B+LNZ’s regional Extension Managers communicate with farmers and others in the sector about B+LNZ’s levy-funded work.
E-diaries are sent out, via B+LNZ’s customer relationship management system, to more than 21,500 individual subscribers across nine regions every Friday morning, and the open and click-through rate is the envy of other organisations. A large amount of B+LNZ website traffic is driven from links in e-diary.
E-diary was the brainchild of long-time B+LNZ employee Aaron Meikle. At the time he was based in Gore working as a Sheep Production officer for WoolPro (one of B+LNZ’s predecessor organisations) and came up with the idea of producing a regular electronic list of events after a meat company employee requested a list of industry-led extension activities.
Prior to e-diaries, farmers received regular newsletters by fax and mail, and events were advertised by mail, faxes and through publications, but Aaron says there were often clashes, with various organisations holding field days and workshops on the same day.
The first e-diaries were sent from Aaron’s email to around 200 Southern South Island farmers and industry people every Friday.
The response was overwhelmingly positive and within six months, farmers throughout the country were receiving their weekly e-diary from regional extension staff.
It quickly grew from just a list of upcoming events to include timely information and links to resources.
Aaron says over 25 years the intention of the e-diary has remained the same, to present time-poor farmers with the information they may need throughout the year.
“We think about the time of the year, the location and the fact that farmers are busy, so we give them information that is applicable to them at that time.”
Aaron says the fact that e-diary has persisted through WoolPro, Meat & Wool Innovation, Tectra, Meat & Wool New Zealand, and now B+LNZ, is testament to its popularity and unlike 25 years ago, there are now tools to measure its success.
“The analytics are always strong and we wouldn’t have fooled farmers for 25 years if it was just another snazzy e-mail.”
B+LNZ chief executive Alan Thomson says e-diaries have evolved over time and will continue to evolve.
“I expect we’ll see more personalisation in future, enabled by technology. The success of Bella, B+LNZ’s AI-powered Knowledge Hub assistant, has shown the value in farmers accessing the information they want in a way that works for them.
“The future of e-diaries may look quite different, but what won’t change is our commitment to ensuring farmers get the information they need when, how and where it suits them.”