Ways you could improve your cereals and oilseeds farm

Every farm will have different things to improve that make the biggest difference to the farm business but here is a list of suggested ways (in no particular order) to improve, or questions to challenge a cereals farm.

• Quantify what each enterprise adds to the farm business in terms of financial and physical contributions. If you are unable to do this objectively, then seek help from an external advisor
• Evaluate whether the benefits from environmental schemes outweigh the costs. All establishment/management costs should be accounted for alongside the physical implications e.g. increased weed burden
• Develop a long-term strategy for the farm. Ensure all stakeholders buy into the mission and vision as all tasks should consider the end goal
• Complete an annual budget, and most importantly use it and refer back to it. Deviations from the budget should be identified and their impacts should be considered
• Have an active involvement with paperwork. Not only will this save accountancy/farm secretary costs but it keeps you up to date with the business’ financial position
• Discuss whether an outside advisor could provide value. Bringing a fresh set of unbiased eyes into a business is healthy. Having to answer the difficult questions is where a business finds areas to improve
• List your most useful Key Performance Indicators. Update them regularly (monthly for some, daily for others). Make sure these KPI’s align with your farms mission and vision and ensure they are measurable
• Base purchasing decisions on facts not fashion. You know your land better than anyone, you understand what machines work best for your own system. Do not be afraid of change, but it should come with evidence to support its claims
• Calculate the strength of your balance sheet. How much exposure are you willing to have and should you look to de-risk your business?

• Delegate responsibility to staff members. Delegation makes employees feel valued and frees up your own time. Their way of doing things might even be better than yours!
• Explore whether contractors could be used within your operation; reducing machinery ownership requirements, whilst providing additional labour and equipment at peak season
• Regularly review your staff’s employment terms (including wages, perks, hours, holidays, training, complains and so on). Compare against neighbouring farms and other similar sectors. Employees must feel valued and be paid fairly for their time
• Is there a formal training programme in place for your employees? Staff training boosts productivity and job satisfaction whilst strengthening the capabilities of your business
• Improve the efficiency of work processes. Spend time with employees to understand where improvements can be made and where they will be most beneficial
• Hold a daily meeting with all staff members. Use this time to motivate employees, raise concerns/issues on farm and ensure everyone is aware of the plan for the day
• Incentivise staff to earn you money. Consider bonuses linked to performance targets. Improved performance benefits the business and rewards the hard work of employees
• Identify the optimum ratio of labour and machinery for the business. How can you best balance workload over the year?

• Review your machinery replacement policy. Consider repair costs, finance charges, resale values and productivity improvements when deciding how frequently to replace machinery
• Can you work with a neighbour to share an item of machinery? Sharing annual costs make ownership comparatively lower and spreads the cost over a wider acreage
• Ensure all machinery is thoroughly cleaned between fields with blackgrass in and ensure all fields are walked to patch spray with roundup remaining blackgrass areas and hand rogue isolated plants pre-harvest
• Sell any scrap metal or disused machinery. The capital released could be reinvested in new machinery that benefits the business

• Calculate the chemical and biological value of incorporating straw into soils against the value of baling and selling it off-farm. What is the financial cost of replacing these nutrients with bagged fertilisers?
• Challenge the seed rate you have been using. Are you achieving the target establishment rates? How are seed rates adjusted depending on soil type/drilling date?
• Identify the time you spend driving farm machinery on a road, what it costs in terms of wear and tear, fuel and wasted time. Calculate if it’s worth it
• Prepare and cost out a fungicide plan at the start of each year. If the agronomist intends to deviate from the plan, question them why

• Calculate the difference in yield between the centre of the field and the edges. How can performance on the edges be improved and what will be the financial contribution of this improvement?
• Understand your soil. Regular testing allows for more accurate nutrient applications which has both financial and environmental benefits
• Calculate the cost of each mechanical operation. This data should be used in collaboration with your budget to inform which strategies should be employed based on the potential returns
• Keep a spreadsheet of yields, prices and field operations to easily compare performance each year or month on a whole farm or field by field basis
• Join benchmarking or discussion groups. Compare your business to others to find where your competitive advantage lies. Learn from others, they have made the mistakes so you do not have to

Diversify crop selection. Extend rotations with either new crop choices or through collaboration with other farmers.

Ensure post-harvest storage and handling facilities are fit for purpose. Maintaining or even improving crop quality is vital in achieving market specifications.