Lewis Perretta, of the agriculture team at Lovewell Blake, says that given the huge uncertainties facing farming, making the most of existing assets is vital, and achieving that cannot be done on the back of farming instincts alone.
“Farming has always been a sector beset by uncertainty, but it’s difficult to remember a time when so many factors were contributing to a lack of confidence about the future,” said Mr Perretta.
“Volatile market prices, the global turbulence caused by the tariffs issue, uncertainty surrounding future government support and seemingly constantly challenging weather conditions are all making planning for the future extremely difficult.”
One important plank in building certainty is to understand where the potential for greater profit and cashflow exists within the business, and to ensure the effective utilisation of assets and resources available on the farm, he says.
“It has never been more important to keep accurate and precise data, to look at where money is being spent, and to drill down into the profitability of different areas of the business.
“This can include allocating accurate costs for applications and machinery usage to specific land parcels to calculate whether they are being utilised most effectively. Fields identified as less productive could perhaps be put to better use; for example, in environmental schemes, livestock or a non-farming enterprise.”
Maintenance and running costs can be allocated to specific machines and vehicles within the bookkeeping software, says Mr Perretta. “This can identify assets which are expensive to run; if the cost of running outweighs the benefit of use, the business can consider replacing it with a newer model or by using contractors – which we commonly see working well with sprayers on smaller farms, for instance.”
Good quality machinery data will also help farms create a viable and efficient asset replacement plan, based on the expected useful life of assets, the expected replacement date and cost. This can help plan ahead and ensure that tax relief is maximised, significant purchases don’t all fall within a single year thus affecting cashflow, as well as making sure assets are replaced before incurring excessive repair costs and downtime.
“Data is not a panacea, and this does not replace experience or farmers’ instincts – but a lot of data is available on every farm; utilising this efficiently is a very useful tool to help aid decision-making, identify where profit can be optimised and in return minimise uncertainty” said Mr Perretta.