Friday, March 29, 2024

Farm profit programme expands

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Increased demand has prompted the expansion of a farm business programme aimed at growing performance and profitability on sheep and beef farms.
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The national programme Understanding Your Farming Business (UYFB), designed and delivered by the Agri Women’s Development Trust and funded by the Red Meat Profit Partnership has been extended to enable a further 2300 women to do the course over the next four years.

Focused at increasing profitability and productivity of sheep and beef farmers by strengthening farming partnerships, the four-month programme builds business and communication skills and confidence of farming women.

It empowered women to view themselves and their farming roles differently and help lift farm performance, trust executive director Lindy Nelson said.

Since 2014 almost 500 women had done the programme, including 50 women who graduated in October from the similar AWDT programme for Maori women, Wahine Maia Wahine Whenua.

The programme would now reach 2800 farms, Nelson said.

There was increased demand from women and men for this type of development as graduates made a big impact in their businesses.

“Constant evaluation and ongoing research shows that graduates are going back to their businesses and creating new momentum in their farming partnerships.

“They are asking new questions and offering new thinking and skills,” Nelson said.

As a result farmers were gaining more control over their futures.

UYFB was not just about women, it was about the farming partnership and men were highly-supportive of women’s increased involvement.

“We’re seeing men encouraging their partners to do the programme and then feeling supported themselves as partners become increasingly involved in discussions, operational strategy and decision-making.”

RMPP was a $64 million, seven-year Primary Growth Partnership programme funded by industry and the Ministry for Primary Industries.

Its aim was to drive sustainable productivity improvements in the sheep and beef sector to deliver higher onfarm profitability.

RMPP general manager Michael Smith said an important part of its work was to look at how to increase knowledge uptake and cause onfarm practice change.

“We know from the research that having both farming partners involved and continuing to grow their knowledge in the business is where onfarm profitability gains are greatest,” Smith said.

“We are excited about being able to offer this opportunity to even more women over the coming four years.”

Twenty-four individual programmes would be run in rural areas next year.

They included four programmes specifically designed for Maori women who were trustees or involved onfarm.

The trust had boosted its facilitation team to more than 20 industry experts who included graduates of the programme.

Independent research specific to UYFB was under way to provide a measure of how the programme influenced onfarm behaviour with results expected early next year.

For more information and to register for the 2017 programmes go to www.awdt.org.nz.

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