Dairy excellence recognised in Australian competition
In November we will launch the sixth year of the Australian Dairy Business of the Year Competition where farmers have the chance to benchmark their business against their counterparts at a considerable saving and with some great prizes to be won.
Entries for this competition that recognises business excellence among dairy farmers will be accepted through until 02 March 2012. Between 70 and 95 farms entered the competition in the first five years and the response by the entrants in previous years has been overwhelmingly positive.
On Wednesday 22 June 2010 in Melbourne, the Westpac Dairy Business of the Year Seminar and Awards was held and this culminated in the confirmation of the winners of the 2010 competition. In addition the winner of the 4th Trans-Tasman Dairy Business Challenge was announced. There was an exceptional line up of speakers for the Seminar and Awards. To read more about the Seminar & Awards, please click here.
In addition to the support of our Gold Sponsors, Westpac and Dairy Australia, we have continued to receive strong support from our Silver Sponsors including Wrightson Seeds, CRV Australia, Elanco, Gardiner Foundation and Intelact, along with our media partner The Australian Dairyfarmer.
To download an entry form for the Westpac Dairy Business of the Year competition please click here. To read more about the design of the competition and the activities and timelines then please click here.
The Dairy Business of the Year competition, which features a major travel prize of $6000, was developed by Red Sky Agricultural and Intelact Australia. This fifth year of competition will again be open to farmers in Victoria, Tasmania, southern NSW, South Australia and Western Australia with entries being taken this year from Northern NSW and Queensland.
Red Sky director David Beca said the competition was unique in its focus on dairy business management and absolute profitability, and would seek to promote positive change on dairy farms.
“A combination of rewarding excellence in business and providing information to allow entrants to benchmark their performance will help the industry as a whole to become more successful,” Mr Beca said.
As well as the major prize, awards will be presented to the best farms in each of the ten districts/states and in three farm system categories. There is also a sharefarmer category, a young farmer category, a most improved farm business award for second year entrants, a pasture harvest and a cow efficiency award.
Finalists will be invited to a two day retreat to meet with experts in business performance.
Westpac's head of dairy, Roddy Brown said the competition provides a great opportunity to recognise the nation's best dairy farmers and is a chance to learn from other successful dairy businesses and benchmark business performance - I would encourage all dairy farmers to enter.
This unique competition allows dairy farmers to benchmark themselves against others in the industry, as every entrant receives a comprehensive review of their financial results, business management and overall farm performance," Mr Brown said.
He said that by supporting business excellence in dairy farming the competition will improve the business culture of the industry and increase the demand for business management information services by generating interest through opportunities such as regional field days associated with the competition.
Participants will need to provide a set of their 2010/11 annual accounts plus approximately two pages of supplementary data on their land, herd and feed use. Finalists will also be required to provide accounts for the previous financial year. A Helpdesk is available to assist with the questionnaire, and for a small fee dairy farmers can have someone come out to their farm to assist them to complete the entry form.
All participants will receive a comprehensive Red Sky analysis of their farm performance including numerical reports comparing their farm with district benchmarks and a single page graphical description of their business, outlining their performance in the five key areas that drive profit. They will also receive a written report detailing opportunities to improve profitability (click here to view a sample report).
The key judging criteria is Return on Capital; other factors to be considered include profit per hectare, cost of production, milk production per hectare, pasture harvest per hectare, cost of feed, labour efficiency and core cost structure.
The entry fee of $325 plus GST covers the Red Sky Farm Performance Analysis.
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