8. Drivers Australian Agriculture Changing consumer demand 80/20 rule fast becoming 90/10 Adding value Climate variability Peaks and troughs of the commodity market Technology pot-hole Policy risks New generation of farmers
9. Impact on Family Farms Family farms make up 93% of Australian agriculture ROA for middle and bottom of each market below bond rate Pressure from variable climate Increased rate of aggregation Increased debt Feeling isolated from policy decisions Urgent need for new sets of skills (marketing, risk management, investment management, systems development, HR management) Need for strong business background and education
13. Factoring in Uncertainty Predictive capacity – scanning and foresighting – how porous is your business? What is coming over the horizon? Liquidity – is it sufficient? Capital raising capacity (equity, debt) under stress? What’s your spread of risks and opportunities? Complexity of the system you’re in – how are other players acting? What is the value chain doing? Which lever can you use PRICE X YIELD - COST
15. Family farm – Decision making processes Challenge of getting everyone on the same page and keeping them there! Building dynamic processes that allow entry, exit, shareholding managed as assets Handling leadership transitions Continuous renewal of the business model Performance management within a family Making business decisions, not based on family dynamic
16. What’s happening to Women? Working more on farm Working more to managing the farm business Working more off farm More involved in community and volunteering activities Reduced time with family and reduced leisure time Ref: Curtin University Research
18. My RIRDC Project Develop a decision support tool to enable commercialisation of the technology on farm. Business case development and promotion. Look at examples of regional community anerobic digestors for potential application in Wheatbelt communities of WA. Future – environmentally branded pork product (market eco-credentials)
19. The future belongs to those that believe in the beauty of their dreams Eleanor Roosevelt
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21. Thank you for your time! Sue Middleton P 08 96711915 M 0427 996 730 E: sue@agcorp.com.au
23. Mark Whitten – Extension Officer Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation
24. Small Group Challenges Exploring communication, support, encouragement and success parameters......and for the majority becoming familiarised with the emotions attached to fear of heights.
33. VALUES JOURNEY “Personal Leadership is the process of keeping your vision and values before you and aligning your life to be congruent with them” - Stephen R. Covey (Author The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People)
Pork production fluctuates between being a Cashcow and a dog depending on commodity markets and pricing, and building it into a star is about managing those risks well and improving the market attractiveness.Our orchard business – is high on market attractiveness but not as high on business strength so its in the wild cats. Wildcats are good but they’re wild so to turn that into a star we need to keep building the business strength. We entered it however because it was a product market, and we wanted to capitalise a water asset. Grain business has good business strength (this is the core compentency of the Brennan Rural Group) but is highly variable on market attractiveness so it can be a bit of ride. It will always be a ride – but using the market tools is one way of evening it out a bit.What did we do:Sustainable Revenue flow (profit and cashflow are equally important)– equity partner, restructuring debt, capital raising process – built our skills in this areaResources and capabilities - Built HR capacityBusiness processes and systems - Built business systems- Balance – products and commodities - Experiemented with product brands.Theory is sell dogs! That is not something we have traditionally done but we may have to think about it in the future
