Grain production planning and understanding business profitability can be stressful, and poor decisions can have significant impacts for many years to come.
Rather than relying on an ‘eyes to the skies’ approach for predicting production outcomes, there are practical steps and tools you can use for making more informed decisions. Here we explore production planning and the financial implications of different planting options.
The P2PAgri farm management software was developed specifically for farming businesses and can help you better understand and plan for the grain outputs required to achieve your profitability goals by aligning your financials with your production data.
As an accredited P2PAgri adviser, I am able to offer you substantial savings on the subscription price.
If you’re not tech savvy or you’re short on time, that’s okay, I can offer support when it comes to production planning decisions as well.
I have helped a number of clients with production planning and ‘field-testing’ estimated crop positions. The key benefits of this type of support include:
Paddock based budgeting
Understanding the real cost of production and profitability should be instrumental in your planning, including updating your paddock plan. A good time to do this is when you lodge your estimates for your crop insurance.
Using a true paddock-based system, we can consider the effects of designating expenses to individual paddocks to identify efficiencies associated with farming inputs that can help cashflow planning and paddock decisions. This ‘no surprises’ approach examines how your estimated crop position will impact on your targeted profit margin, while checking your budget against your cashflow.
Managing farm risk
Using ‘what-if’ scenario planning and analysis we can help you field test different options without risk or lengthy paddock testing. The software enables options to be plotted over a five year period that can outline calculations associated with various seasonal outcomes. This offers great flexibility for farmers… the more marginal your region, the greater the need to consider downside projections.
Knowing your actual costs, including desired base profit, helps with grain marketing by establishing the floor price you need to achieve, easily and accurately done in P2P. This can help with planning decisions such as taking contracts or managing your crop insurance.
Short and long-term planning
Being able to forward plan and consider pre-harvest maintenance requirements for the next season can make an enormous difference to your business efficiencies. Getting ahead of the game means you can make bookings with mechanics or prepare for crop planning, including getting on the suppliers list sooner if you plan on switching varieties.
The P2PAgri business software has the ability to identify trends and benchmarks for your business, so you can make better business decisions aligned to your long term financial goals.
As a cloud-based system, the program helps you to work smarter with efficient data entry applications. The software has other benefits too… your financial information can also be shared with other professionals such as your accountant and lender helping with more efficient planning and reduced rework.
For help planning your farm production efficiencies or if you would like to know more about how P2PAgri software or other apps and programs can help you, I encourage you to contact me today on 08 8253 2906 or email info@financialservicessa.com.au to arrange an appointment.
Acting now can help you make the most of your production schedule so that you and your family may enjoy the financial benefits you deserve this season.
This advice is provided by Phillip Dibben under Financial Services SA rural business consulting services.
Phillip Dibben is an MFAA Approved Credit Adviser, including SMSF lending, and is an Authorised Credit Representative with Riverland Lending Services Pty Ltd, ABN 37 1415 814 080 ACL 391835, and is licensed to provide advice in all consumer and business loans including equipment finance. All loans are subject to lending and approval criteria.
Phillip Dibben is also a financial adviser at Active Financial Management. Active Financial Management and its advisers are Authorised Representatives of Fortnum Private Wealth Pty Ltd ABN 54 139 889 535 AFSL 357306 trading as Fortnum Financial Advisers.