Sean Bennett: Raising farm profitability

Sean Bennett

Red Meat Profit Partnership (RMPP) is tasked with lifting the profitability and productivity of our sheep and beef farming businesses.

RMPP is now at the half way point of its seven-year Primary Growth Partnership programme.

It's a milestone that marks a period of extensive research, trials and planning culminating in a series of initiatives now being rolled out, some of which I have been closely involved with.

This includes streamlining which KPIs farmers could use on-farm to help make better decisions. We have also been involved in the project looking at how to ensure take up of new knowledge and ideas and how this can lead to an increase in profit on-farm.

In response to the research findings, RMPP is initiating RMPP Action Network which sees groups of seven to nine farm businesses working collaboratively around a common goal. Each group is eligible for kick start funding of $4000 per farm business, which is pooled to pay for expert industry advice and a facilitator.

Each group is also supported by trained facilitators to guide their group and to help identify experts who can share new knowledge and ideas.

We are excited about RMPP Action Network as we can see the huge benefit to farmers who take up the opportunity to use trusted expertise to help drive their businesses.

RMPP's point of difference is that it allows each business to access kick start funding so they can start turning those good ideas into action.

We have clients who are full of ideas about what they want to achieve on-farm but there is nothing like endorsement from an industry expert to give farmers the confidence to then go out and make those changes.

Some of our clients who have expressed an interest in connecting with RMPP Action Network are looking at a range of topics, including soils, animal breeding and succession.

The role we at Crowe Horwath play in the first instance is in connecting farmers together to form their groups, whether you are a client with us or not.

If you want to find out more, RMPP have a new website they launched this week, www.actionnetwork.co.nz or give me a call for more information about coming on board.

We don't get too many opportunities like this in our sector and so I believe that all farmers should be closely considering this. A number of Hawke's Bay farmers were involved in the trials too and you can read about their experiences on the new website.

This information is general and readers should seek specialist advice before making financial decisions.