The 3 biggest challenges that farmers face right now

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Posted by Brendon Walsh on 28 March 2018

Depressed farmer 1200 with arrow

Recently, we surveyed different farming industry people for their thoughts and opinions, at the Central Districts Field Days in Feilding.

We had a range of respondents, so I feel it is fairly indicative of what is happening out there in the industry.

We asked farmers to rank 6 particular farm business challenges, from the biggest challenge, down to the smallest challenge. The challenges (in no particular order) were:

  • Animal Health
  • Business planning (Budgets, strategy, Succession)
  • Farm operations (water, pasture, soils, effluent)
  • Financial (cashflow and profitability)
  • Human resources
  • Product quality

The biggest challenge? Financial - in other words, how cash flows, the profitability of their businesses, and creating profit. That will be no surprise to the industry.

The second biggest challenge was Farm operations.

Third was Business planning, followed further back by animal health, then a distant 5th back to product quality, followed very much last, by human resources.

Financial, Farm Operations and Business Planning were quite close in their survey scores. This could indicate that:

  • Farmers are struggling to generate profitability they are truly happy with.
  • Farm operations take a lot of focus and it is a real challenge to get done what needs to get done, let alone get done what will provide profit.
  • With business planning, looking ahead and setting up for the future to achieve what is most important, is hard.

Perhaps farmers don’t really know how to cause their businesses to rock! It’s hard enough just getting through the year in terms of farm operations!

At Growfarm®, we provide the tools and support that sheep and beef farmers need, to take control of their businesses and unlock their potential. If you need help to get your profit, your farm operations and your business planning in order, get in touch through our website and find out how you can turn this around.

I look forward to speaking with you again soon, when I’ll release more from our industry survey.

Congratulations to Nick from Taihape who won the prize draw for those who completed our survey.

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