You don't increase productivity by chasing productivity

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Posted by Brendon Walsh on 26 July 2016

Lambs jumping

Two particular GrowFARM® clients who farm near each other told me the other day (separately) how their scanning results have lifted around 20% this year. One even emailed me his results sheets from the scanning operator for last year and this year. They were rather ecstatic to say the least! One of them also related how he was talking to a top farm consultant in their area, who had lamented rather painfully that area averages were down by about 20% this year! How could this be?

Another client at the other end of the country loves the fact that over the three years he has been with GrowFARM® he has dropped back 1000 ewes and is still selling the same number of lambs. Pasture covers and animal condition are better and more consistent. What’s going on here? Why has their productivity lifted?

The main point of difference is that these people (and other GrowFARM® clients) are putting in place the 6 Profit Principles step by step in their businesses every day as they move through the year. In other words, they are setting themselves up to deliver profit as well as they can EVERY year. Their pasture covers are hitting the targets set for the key times of year, animals are fed far better and fed fully at the key times, stocking rates are far more appropriate to ensure this happens and life has become a lot easier! They know well ahead of time what their options are and what they can do to cause their results to happen as close as possible to what they really want.

All of this supports the fact that they are not implementing the age old advice of trying to increase production with more ewes, higher lambing percentage genetics, more fencing, more fertiliser (although occasionally these may be individually necessary) and working harder and longer. They are chasing profitability and resilience because they know that they run businesses first and foremost. They know that secondly, those businesses happen to be sheep and beef farms. As a result, their productivity is increasing AS AN OUTCOME, not as a driver! This is central to understanding how profit is actually generated, and it is just a system. If a farmer doesn’t get this, then they need to invest time into finding out about it because more of the same old same old will only bring more disappointment, lack of profits and weaker rural communities.

On top of all that, by focusing on profitability, family time is more frequent, decision making is far more focused and robust, and relationships are improving a heck of a lot! These include spousal, parent – child, farmers – their communities, and others. They have found that by cutting through the BS that is bandied around in the industry and getting good at what it really takes, they can improve their results markedly and have the life and relationships they really want.

This has always been the case – I have been working with farmers on this basis for just under a decade and a half through all different types of seasons and economic conditions, and these methods continue to bring the results. Why? Because the focus is on profitability, not productivity, and getting there involves improvement in the most important areas – the minds of the farmers and the management of their businesses.

If you are reading this and it all sounds a bit outside the square, I re-suggest you suspend prejudice, open the mind to possibilities and go and seek out the real oil. If you are committed to achieving what is most important to you and your family, you owe it to yourself anyway.

If you are curious about how the GrowFARM® System can help sheep and beef farmers generate the profits they really want, contact me here.

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