Economic drivers and profit opportunities
Australian dairy farmers will get a clearer picture of their industry’s economic performance and a pathway to improve their profitability through a series of articles being released over coming weeks.
The five articles compiled by Jon Hauser of Xcheque and farm business consultant Neil Lane describe the economic performance of the Australian dairy industry and show what farmers can do to make more money.
The first two articles have been posted at https://www.xcheque.com/ar ticles and cover the definition and measurement of farm business performance and an analysis of industry data and the main factors that will drive profitability.
Future papers will provide a closer inspection of some of the more complex issues of farm physical and financial performance, a review of the farm business performance for Australian dairy regions and a summary of findings and presentation of a pathway towards farm self-analysis and improvement.
Dr Hauser described the articles as a technical analysis and comprehensive review of dairy industry economics but said they weren’t academic papers.
“The results are presented in a manner that makes it easy for farmers and nonexperts to consume,” he said.
The articles identify the important key performance indicators of farm and industry operational and financial performance and show how the Australian dairy industry measures against these indicators.
They identify the underlying physical and financial drivers of farm business economic performance and outline a process for individual farmers to measure and understand their own farm performance, and take a step towards improved profitability, risk management, economic sustainability, and wealth.
Dr Hauser said he was taking an altruistic view to helping dairy farmers.
“We have a long track record of publishing articles about Australian dairy economics and the global dairy industry and we believe it’s important to communicate the issues uncovered by this research in an easily understandable way to help farmers to move forward.”
“Dairy is about money and economics but these factors are often misunderstood by farmers and the industry.”
Mr Lane said dairy needs to focus on profitability and these reports could give direction to individual farmers while helping the broader industry.
“Dairy farms are difficult businesses to analyse and this type of approach combining Jon’s analytical skills and my farming knowledge will help to really pull apart dairy businesses,” he said.
“These papers analyse industry data and trends and we will be able to overlay individual farm data over the top of that to identify where farmers are and what direct they should take.
Mr Lane said the papers would be interesting to all dairy farmers.
“It’s a unique analysis of publicly available data as part of the Dairy Farm Monitor program using Xcheque’s farm business analysis tools,” he said.