Dairy Alliance

Information represents the building blocks that form the foundation for sound decision making. Information Management is the keystone that brings the blocks together to form the structure. As progressive dairy producers and dairy professional, who serve progressive producers, you have access to an abundance of data; both, internally and externally. Managing that data to provide meaningful information can mean the difference between operating a highly successful business or one that is merely average.

Information management (IM) is the process of transforming data into useable information for the purpose of making decisions. The process can be defined by these six steps:

1. Collection
2. Organization
3. Processing
4. Reporting
5. Integration
6. Utilization

Knowing what data needs to be collected is the starting point of a sound information management program. Knowing where and how to get that data from your information systems is sometimes the most difficult part of the process. The data management capabilities of many systems employed on a dairy farm remain untapped. Dairy Alliance is working with industry to develop educational programs in data management.

Insuring that data from different sources is collected, processed and reported uniformly is a key component of information management. Dairy Alliance is working with key Dairy Professionals to bring those uniform procedures to reality. By doing so, progressive Dairy Producers and their advisors will have access to more meaningful benchmarks with which to analyze their business. Comparison of data to industry standards can exemplify the strengths of a business and pinpoint areas of opportunity.