A common gripe among farmers is that their income did not grow to match expanding compliance regulations and bureaucracy.
The associated paperwork may be a necessary evil, but it tended to rate below most other farming activities, which has prompted a North Otago company to try to remove some of the tedium.
Banarach Farm has created template manuals for dairy and sheep and beef farms which cover every aspect of the business from staff management to regular maintenance.
The manuals have five sections: administration and planning, animal, human resources, machinery and operations.
Each section has its own contents page with an alphabetical listing of the policies or procedures to be followed.
Banarach managing director Andrea Ludemann said the manuals could be set up to suit each individual business.
The manuals grew out of Miss Ludemann and her husband Richard Plunket's need to have control and set standards.
They also realised that absentee owners needed systems and guidelines in place that everyone could follow.
Farmers were generally too busy to compile one themselves.
The owner or manager generally kept information in his head and acted on that information instinctively.
However, when there was a period of rapid growth and other people were employed without the experience or that instinct, costly errors and mistakes could result.
While it was easy for staff to call the boss and ask a question, Ms Ludemann said workers had told her they liked to be able to work out solutions with the aid of the manuals.
Other said they sometimes felt embarrassed asking questions.
Having a reference resource saved them any awkwardness or the risk of guessing an answer.
Ms Ludemann said the manuals were a template only, that they could and should be adapted to fit the individual need, but it provided farms with management systems and a central information source.