Benchmarking Group

The Monaro Farming Systems bench marking group formed in 2014 in collaboration Sandy McEachern, Holmes & Sackett.  In 2018, the group consisted of 15 farm businesses and now has a robust data set for the previous 5 financial years .  Issues that have been explored include optimum stocking rates, enterprise mix, capital expenditure, labour efficiency, lowering costs of production (ie. shearing costs), real profit drivers, returns on investment calculations and pasture improvement strategies.

The bench marking opportunity allows you to explore the strengths and weaknesses of your business which leads to astute decision making to achieve additional profits whilst identifying areas for cost cutting and value-adding to your bottom line.  MFS sees this project as a key focus area for years to come as the key performance indicators (KPI’s) for farm performance on the Monaro are not well established.

All Monaro farming entities are invited to join this group.  Input sheets are generally required by August for the preceding financial year.  Please contact Georgie Hood (0487 186 419) or Nancy Spoljaric (0438 066 322) if you would like to become involved or for more information.

Testimonial

“Initially I was anxious about the process. Sharing our data was quite confronting and because our farm is in a development stage I wasn’t going to be at the top to the group in terms of financial return. However, once I moved on from these anxieties and learnt that it is more a comparison of yourself each year, I became a real enthusiast of the process. At the start, the laborious task of entering the data was frustrating but once we changed our data entry to match input data the process became much easier. It is mandatory to enter the data by a certain date which also is great as the usual excuse that something else is more important gets shelved. I really value the days when the group gets together as it is an open, trustworthy and entertaining environment. I have picked up something from every meeting and whether the change is small or extreme, it is a step in the direction of a more profitable business- for my business these differences have made the entry cost and invested time a no-brainer.” – Michael Shannon (MFS participant)