Forward planning and long-term prospects have become easier to explore at Julia and Derek Gale's Timboon farm in Victoria's Western District, thanks to the ‘Our Farm, Our Plan’ initiative.
“When WestVic Dairy told us about ‘Our Farm, Our Plan’ we were very interested,” Julia said.
“We have three young boys who are very interested in farming so being able to plan for ours and their future provided a clear pathway in planning for eventual succession.
“We’ve started saving money better, and it let me see there was more than just ‘plan A and B’.
“It’s not just about planning for tomorrow, but planning for next month, next year and even the next decade.”
The program is not just about planning the business side of things, Julia said, with ‘Our Farm, Our Plan’ also enabling them to balance their work and home lives.
“Derek now takes some days off to work on his car, and it allows him to step back and look at the bigger picture more often rather than just the day-to-day.”
While it’s easy to put off some of the larger jobs, ‘Our Farm, Our Plan’ helped the Gales find focus and progress some long-term achievements.
“Sitting down and actually working out what we want to achieve this year was important,” Julia said.
“We kept putting off installing new water pipes on the farm but having it all written down really pushed us to get it sorted.
“Our Farm, Our Plan saved us time and money in the long run and allowed us to focus on the jobs that just needed to get over the line.”
By involving all key decision makers in a farm business ‘Our Farm, Our Plan’ is designed to equip farmers to prioritise where they will put their effort, clarify their long-term business and personal goals, identify actions needed to achieve goals, and to better manage uncertainty and risk.
For more information on how to get started, visit Our Farm, Our Plan on the Dairy Australia website, or contact your regional team.