Agriculture Victoria is offering sheep and beef producers the opportunity to participate in the Victorian Livestock Farm Monitor Project (LFMP).
The LFMP has been collecting detailed physical and financial farm information from producers for 50 years and providing them with a thorough and independent report of their farm’s performance.
Participants have said they use the report’s data for such things as obtaining or extending loans or to make short, medium and long-term business decisions.
Farm Business Economist Sam Henty said for a farm business to achieve its goals it must first establish whether it can pay the bills, understand how efficiently it uses its resources and determine whether the owner is increasing their net worth.
“The Livestock Farm Monitor Project provides producers and decision makers with this information,” Mr Henty said.
“It’s a good opportunity to step back and look at your figures and input costs and review these elements.”
Participating producers will receive an annual individualised report with graphs and data from the reporting year.
“A participating farm business can use the results from this report to compare its performance over time and help identify the critical variables to inform and provide confidence for on-farm decision making.”
Data collection occurs in July and August each year, to coincide with the availability of data from the previous financial year.
Data collected includes farm income and costs for the financial year, trading and breeding details, feed input and production, fertiliser and labour inputs and a complete stock, feed, land and farm machinery inventory, including all farm assets and liabilities.
Limited places are available for individual farms and farm discussion groups across Victoria to participate in the 2019–20 LFMP.
There is no cost for participants, and all information is treated as strictly confidential.