Every farm business employs a number of specialist advisors to give advice and carry out tasks on your farm that you cannot do, or have the time to do.  E.g. Feed Nutritionist, Bank manager, Vet, Accountant, Farm consultant, Agronomist, Solicitor are some of these.  Some businesses will employ some or all.

Their areas of expertise or the topics they cover will overlap such as the nutritionist, agronomist and vet where there is a health issue relating to nutrition or the bank manager, accountant and farm consultant on financial issues with the consultant sometimes being the link between the physical and financial management.  Sometimes on a one to one basis the advice given on a specific topic can be contradictory and you end up being confused.

But how often do you encourage these people to hold a joint meeting with you to brainstorm issues or get everyone’s input at the same time to reach a consensus which everyone works towards?  You will get better value for your money, a team of specialists that are working together for your common good with more solutions and less confusion.  You cannot do without some of these specialists so make the most of them for your benefit.

Us as farm consultants, though not a necessity like the vet or the accountant can perform an important role in facilitating change which means getting all these advisors on board so that they know why and what change is happening and what will be expected from them in the future.

As consultants we may identify improvement in certain areas of the business and follow up on our advice by making the change happen and this involves working with the advisors in this area of the business.  If your advisors are not talking to each other about your business in your presence, why not?

Please contact Gerard at gerardfinnan@fcgagric.com or your local FCG office, for more advice.