Teagasc Urge farmers to complete Profit Monitor for the 2021 production year
Teagasc are urging farmers to assess the financial performance of their business in 2021, and to contact their Teagasc advisor to arrange this. The Teagasc Profit Monitor is the only financial package that links the technical and physical performance on the farm to the financial performance.
Kevin Connolly, acting Head of the Teagasc Farm Management Department said; “The Teagasc Profit Monitor shows farmers the impact that improvements in technical and physical efficiency have on the overall profitability of their farm. It also allows a farmer to compare their performance with other farmers and discussion group members. Given that farmers are facing a year of rising costs, assessing the starting position of the business is the first step towards managing costs for 2022.”
Teagasc has invested to significantly upgrade the Profit Monitor over the last two years with new look reports and much improved analysis. Kevin Connolly said; “Many additional features and reports are now available to help farmers assess their farm financial performance. We are encouraging farmers across all enterprises, in the first two months of 2022, to input their 2021 information for dairy, cattle, sheep, tillage and pig farms to get their own individual profit monitor completed.”
Stan Lalor, Director of Knowledge Transfer in Teagasc said; “Upgraded reports with options to examine the cost structure of the farm in detail will be available for farmers. Areas such as animal health and veterinary costs, young stock rearing costs and dairy stock contract rearing charges, among others can now be examined and benchmarked. The farm cash flow position can now be examined using a dedicated cash flow report. As well as the long established ability to check on farm output, costs and profitability.”
With the 2022 version of Teagasc Profit Monitor, a more detailed analysis on the asset and liability aspects of the farm using an enhanced balance sheet analysis is possible. This new balance sheet analysis is available as an option for each individual farm and is useful to check whether the farm business is growing and developing as expected over a longer term. An analysis on the labour hourly input to run the farm business from both paid and unpaid labour is also looked at in detail on the reports.
Also included in the new Teagasc Profit Monitor system are increased options for discussion groups to pool their figures together to benchmark and compare financial and technical performance between the farms. The revised group reports have greater flexibility in what measures can be shown on the report for participating group members and also in how financial and physical /technical measures can be grouped to make the reports more meaningful and make benchmarking easier.
Options are also available within each individual and group report to present the figures in graph form which can often make the analysis easier to understand. The system is focused on giving individual farmers and their advisors a confidential analysis that is accurate, timely and useful in setting targets for change for the coming year.
The key pieces of information needed to complete the Profit Monitor include: details on farm sales and purchases of stock and farm production, ICBF monthly stock inventory table, details of scheme payments; Mart/Factory sheets; details of farm operating costs which can be collated from bank statements; cheque books (if used); merchant invoices/dockets.
Farmers can access the Teagasc Profit Monitor mainly through their advisor. It is also possible for each individual farmer user to log in securely to the system and interact with the system online. We would urge all farmers to complete a Profit Monitor annually to build up a long-term financial performance picture of the farm. For farmers wishing to complete a Teagasc Profit Monitor, they should contact their local Teagasc Advisory Office or email profit.monitor@teagasc.ie
Visit www.teagasc.ie/profitmonitor for more information.