As we go round our clients’ farms, we are not only dealing with the financial effects on cash flow of low commodity prices, combined with difficult weather conditions and the continuing political uncertainty with Brexit, but we are also very actively involved in discussing the effects of the current situation with farm staff.

A lot of our clients’ businesses have grown and are employing one, two, three or even more staff and we are finding in general, people employed on farms are concerned about the situation and want to know how it specifically affects them and what the future holds for their employer’s business.
It is very important in these difficult times when cash flows are under severe pressure to remain positive and not to allow the financial pressures to overtly affect relations with staff. Having said this, it is important staff are fully aware of the situation and empowered to do what they can to help.

One thing we have been doing lately with clients, is sitting down with members of staff and going through the costs they can help influence. These are typically variable costs, vet costs, accuracy of feed use, but also quite critically, how machinery is used and maintained and running costs. With the escalation of machinery costs, in particular on farms, for example, servicing, labour and spares, it is quite enlightening. When you sit down with people and talk through what things actually cost, how much can be achieved.

From the farmer’s point of view, it is important to lead from the front and be positive. You cannot expect staff members to sort everything out. Most people need to know what the future holds, that there is a positive long term future for the business in many cases and you will survive this by working together as a team.

In the long run, this attention to detail and focus on costs you can all control, is the best way to ensure business success. It is one thing sitting down with a cash flow budget and arbitrarily cutting costs, it is quite another to actually be out on the ground putting that in place. The farm owner or manager needs to be the leader of the team and to enthuse an attitude amongst staff to achieve real cost reduction and show how this can be done. Often, some simple training and pointing people in the right direction is all that is required to achieve some quite large gains.

For help in improving your staff communication and ensuring farm policy changes happen effectively, contact Max at maxsealy@fcgagric.com or your local FCG office.