So you need to save money in this downturn? Where to start when you have a Sharefarmer.

There are probably 101 articles going out right now about where and where not to make cuts on farm to deal with the drop in milk price. For sharefarming relationships, this can be especially fraught if not approached with caution. People (and your sharefarmers being the most important) are your biggest asset to seeing you through. How can you protect them while making savings?

First things first, as a farm owner how you manage your personal spending (other than the essential) will be essential for demonstrating you are in this with your sharefarmer. Pleading poverty and then taking your family (of 18 people) off on an international adventure or purchasing a new camper or installing a new kitchen in your beach house while your sharefarmers haven’t been able to take a week off farm in 3 seasons or are struggling to put groceries on the table is going to have them refreshing the Farmsource jobs faster than you can say “Gold Coast”. Pulling back on personal spending is a good place to start without impacting farm productivity in future seasons (looking through the cycle) and prevent you offending your biggest asset.

Next, any repairs and maintenance. Example: soil testing is a small investment to identify what paddocks can miss out this year. Hedges - could some of the farm miss its annual haircut? However, if there were planned spends that would make the farm more efficient or make life easier for the labour on farm, look at how these can still be implemented along with keeping on top of animal health to ensure they continue to perform into the future.

Finally - changes that will impact production. Most farmers are going to need to go down this pathway for one reason or another, but for farm owners its the how you do it that is most important. You need to remember you are a team here first and foremost. Your team member will need to factor in their own overall ability to put groceries on the table, pay down any debt and pay their own staff. Sit down together to discuss different options and what those options could mean for each other. If the proposal is the sharefarmer or their partner need to seek off farm income, encourage it. If they need to let staff go, work together on ensuring they do this appropriately. And if they could need an extension on an over draft, be prepared the bank may not allow it and that at some point in the future they are going to need to account for that interest, so have another option if this is pushed back.

Being open and working with sharefarmer as part of your team early is the best bet you have to retaining them both on your farm and in the industry. And you never know, they might have some excellent ideas. We are also here to facilitate these discussions, so give us an email or a call if you would like to discuss that option.

Louise