Farmers have to consider their steps very carefully. The business challenge is about giving farmers the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle and allowing them to make up their own picture. A series of courses break it down into key areas of understanding the business, planning for profit within the business, understanding the balance sheet, planning for growth, financing growth and taxation. As part of this they have put resources into benchmarking to encourage farmers to keep accurate financial records and compare them with farms in similar systems. Over 200 farmers are using the system through the internet.
Indicators show where the farmers are strong and weak compared to other farmers.
He showed the example using farms from the benchmark system. If quota is the most limiting, like in the south, the focus is on increasing the net margin per litre which is achieved by low costs systems. However total herd profit is a factor of margin multiplied by volume.