First two Integrated Farm Planning workshops completed

Ellesmere Sustainable Agriculture’s Integrated Farm Planning Project Enhancing Ellesmere, has got off to a good start with two workshops completed so far despite a busy time of year for local farmers.

The first workshop that took place in November on Business and Financial Planning was facilitated by BakerAg, it covered topics such as goal setting and developing a vision and mission for your farming business. It also helped farmers recognise  potential risks they could face and making a plan to prepare for them.

Nick Martin and Ryan Wilkinson from Rabobank where also there to discuss the why, what, how and when of financial planning on farm with practical steps to keep on top of the finances.

The workshop also assisted farmers to distinguish the roles and skills of their current farming team and where there might be gaps that need to be addressed.

It was a long day but feedback was positive and the plans and actions developed on the day will be of benefit to those who attended.

It was an early start for the 2nd workshop held on the 30th January but 20 local farmers turned out to learn more about People and HR.

Rachel Joblin from BakerAg once again facilitated the workshop with help from Delwyn.

First on the agenda for the day was Lynda from Summit Safety who had a refreshing, no nonsense, sensible approach to health and safety planning on farm which went down well with those gathered.

Following her was Sarah Watson from People Mad, a local people management and development firm. Sarah was a great source of information and gave some realistic tips on getting the best from your team and also focusing on employment rules.

The day ended around lunchtime allowing many of the farmers present to get back to their farms nice and early and get on with farm work.

Feedback from both events was really positive, with suggestions from farmers on other topics they would like to see covered in the future. The ESAI team are busy planning and preparing for further workshops and events over the coming months.

If you would like to be kept up to date with ESAI news and notified about workshops and events or if there are topics you would like to see covered in these workshops please get in touch , jo.tinaku@esai.co.nz or give her a bell 0210304783.