Northern Farm Business Management

Rationale

In response to the regional priority setting process, Murray Dairy and Vic DPI initiated an investment in the area of Farm Business Management. It is assumed that one of the keyways to enable dairy farmers to remain competitive into the future is to understand and manage their farm as a business. By initiating the development of a farm business management culture in the northern Victorian dairy industry, and by encouraging, and supporting both farmers and industry to use economically sound principles in business management appraisal, farmers will be better positioned to manage the changing environment within which they operate.

Target Audience and Aims

The ultimate aim of this project is to increase the number of farm businesses using a continuous process to analyse, plan, control and review their resources to achieve their goals. Initially the target audience was a smaller group of active dairy farm managers. However due to demand created through the regional priority setting, the project grew to include the development of a series of awareness seminars delivered to farmers and service providers across the region.

Methodology

The NFBM project started with a scoping paper to clarify the role and scope of the project. This resulted in a position paper used to clarify thinking and describe the best way to address the issue of ‘changing the business management culture’ in the northern dairying region of Victoria. The position paper drew on most of the existing business management materials that were available. From the position paper the project team continued on to develop and deliver 2 extension activities:

1.    A 2-day training program aimed at providing farmers with a better appreciation of the benefits of participating in a business analysis, and the tools and skills required to review their business. The farmers were then exposed to the concept of marginal thinking, and were provided with an opportunity to apply the concepts to a decision aimed at improving the profit of their business. Participants were also offered 1:1 support to apply the process to their own business.

2.    The design and delivery of an extension activity where larger groups of farmers and service providers were introduced to the principles of farm business management. The aim was to stimulate interest in farm business management and to demonstrate the benefits of reviewing business performance. Six interactive awareness seminars were held across the region.

In addition to the pilot program the project team was also asked to make some recommendations for future FBM investments based on their project experiences (both the current project and past FBM projects).