Dairy Business Farm Planning
Stage 2.2: What are the main issues you must focus on?
Once you have fully evaluated your current situation, it is useful to look at the strengths (S), weaknesses (W), opportunities (O) and threats (T) for your farm as it is currently operating. You can complete the SWOT analysis for yourself (personal), your business (farm) or a combination of both. Completing this exercise honestly will help you to build on your strengths, take advantage of opportunities, correct your weaknesses and avoid threats.
Fill in the next stage2_2 (29KB, PDF). If you would like somebody else’s view, ask a family member, friend, or fellow discussion group member to fill it in for you.
Strengths |
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Weaknesses |
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Opportunities |
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Threats |
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On completion of your SWOT analysis, you should identify four key focus areas for attention if you wish to succeed in your plans. These can be for you (personal) or for the farm business. These are the areas that you need to work on – that you must become really good at - over the coming years.
Your focus areas should be more than just the elements of good technical farming i.e. grassland management, breeding, nutrient management, stock management. Technical competence will not be enough in the future. Think of the other skills which you will need in the future e.g. negotiation, cash flow budgeting, forecasting, networking, managing labour/ contractors. Ask yourself if you need to focus on some of these areas.