Adaptive farm courses for grain growing regions

6 June 2024

Farmers in northern and western Victoria have the perfect opportunity to prepare their business for the future with several 2-day farm business courses coming up with agronomist Dr Kate Burke.

Agriculture Victoria Regional Manager Grains Services Ms Felicity Pritchard said Dr Burke’s ‘Adaptive Skills for Your Farming Future’ courses are suitable for grain and mixed farmers including multi-generational family farms who wish to develop a climate adaptive plan to suit their business goals and seasonal challenges.

‘Dr Burke has extensive experience in crop agronomy and dryland agriculture and her practical farm finance workshops are well-received and popular,’ Ms Pritchard said.

‘Attendees from the courses we held in February told us they enjoyed the interactive and thought-provoking group discussions and left the course eager to review their business plans and implement new milestones.’

Course topics include:

• Key profit drivers and high-level benchmarks
• Income versus cost of production and impact of rotation
• Calculating basic financial benchmarks
• Understanding personal appetite for risk
• Understanding production potential to assess variation in profit
• Managing climate variability and farm financial performance
• Scenario planning for the 2024 and 2025 seasons and beyond.

Course dates and locations:

• 15-16 July, Colbinabbin Hotel, Colbinabbin
• 18-19 July, Bridgewater Recreation Reserve, Bridgewater
• 24-25 July, Brim Sports and Social Club, Brim
• 20-21 August, Goroke Recreation Reserve, Goroke
• 27-28 August, Joel Joel Hall, Joel Joel
• 7-8 September, Skipton Golf and Bowls Club, Skipton.

To book and see full course details visit agriculture.vic.gov.au/events

These events are delivered through the Farm Business Resilience Program jointly funded by the Australian Government Future Drought Fund and the Victorian Government Future Agriculture Skills Capacity Fund.

Media contact: Anna Ferguson

Phone: 0499 540 475