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New entrants to farming : using figures to make money – event summary

25 October 2016

Meeting Summary

The first meeting of the Ayr New Entrants and Farming Successors group went very well and was attended by 19 delegates.

Raymond Crerar gave an introduction to the new FAS and the background behind the formation and continuation of the 12 groups across Scotland. He highlighted the resources available to the participants and sign posted the ILMP’s, website and social media sites, case studies, technical notes, annual gathering and detailed the mentoring process and the application process involved. An outline of the forthcoming meetings was provided.  You can read Raymond’s presentation slides here.

Kev Bevan discussing using figures in your farm business
Kev Bevan, FAS Team Leader from SAC Consulting was the main speaker for the evening. His in-depth presentation and practical sessions highlighted the importance and power of numbers, benchmarking and Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) whilst showing that this need not be complicated. He provided examples of how different calculations could be used in practice and demonstrated some useful calculators that will be made available to the group on the FAS website in due course.
The final part of Kev’s presentation covered partial budgets and their importance in helping you make simple and quick daily decisions on farm. These can be used in the simplest of circumstances e.g. the cost benefit of putting another 10 kg LW on finished cattle or whether or not to by a neighbouring block of land.  Kev’s presentation slides can be viewed here.
The formal meeting finished at 9.30 pm followed by tea/coffee and informal discussions between delegates before departure.

Key Messages

  • Partial Budgets are key to help farmers make quick and calculated decisions on farm.
  • These can be used in the simplest of circumstances e.g. the cost benefit of putting another 10 kg LW on finished cattle or whether or not to by a neighbouring block of land.

A copy of the delegate pack is available to download below.

Related Downloads
New Entrants to Farming – Case Studies
New Entrants to Farming – Guidance Notes 1 – 4
New Entrants to Farming – Guidance Notes 5 – 8

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