An interactive spreadsheet model for visualizing dairy farm data

Abstract

This paper describes the development of an interactive spreadsheet model (INT-VIS) developed to give users quick access to bespoke visualization representations of data from a dairy demonstration farm. Dairy farming has a long history in New Zealand with the country exporting ninety-five percent of the annual milk production. Demonstration Farms, such as the one which is the focus of this paper, have been established by educational institutes and industry groups as a way of promoting best practice dairying for this fast growing industry. One of the aims of such farms is to produce and share data so that other farmers will benefit from the information sourced. Typically, the information from the South Island Dairy Development Centre (SIDDC) demonstration farm at Lincoln University is collected weekly, entered into a spreadsheet, graphs and charts produced on an adhoc basis and shared with stakeholders by way of pdf documents on the organisation website. This paper describes the first steps in developing an interactive spreadsheet model to allow users to create their own bespoke visualizations.