Updating skills and know-how to face tomorrow's farming challenges
The end of another tax year is looming with many farm businesses preparing to finalise their accounts for the 2018/19 financial year.
This to me is always an exciting time when you can finalise your business performance and see how you have done and then identify what you can do better to improve.
This year-on-year improvement or being willing to make improvements and adjust the way you operate is what makes good farming businesses even better.
There has never been a more appropriate time to make your business as efficient and effective as possible as Brexit draws nearer and the uncertainty of external factors is on our minds.
There is not much individuals can do about external factors, but individuals can do something about planning, budgeting and preparing your farm business for the coming year. If your business is as efficient and effective as possible this will reduce possible future hardships.
Planning for the coming year is always difficult, trying to work out and calculate what the price of wheat or milk will be and how much will it cost for seed or concentrates. These are all questions you must ask yourself and if only you had a crystal ball would you know the answer, but an educated guess using your experience and your knowledge of the business will get you closer in making better decisions.
It's decisions you must make in order to put a plan together and it’s this plan that will guide you through the coming year.
Many farm businesses use farm consultants to support them in this budget planning process, but if you want to learn more about budget setting and performance management and take a more active role in this important process please get into contact with your local land-based college or university or the National Farmers Union to identify short courses to attend.
If you are serious about updating your skills and knowledge in the area of business management there are a number of full time and part time programmes/qualifications you can do. For example, the new BTEC Nationals and Higher National qualifications deliver business management subjects in an applied learning format using realistic up-to-date scenarios and situations.
Have a look on the BTEC website for Agriculture and see the detailed content. If this interests you contact your local land-based college.
Chris Jones is a manager in the land-based sector
