17 January 2007
Like a lot of other Australians, two groups of farmers in the Avon region of Western Australia felt challenged by aspects of modern life - the demand to 'find' time to balance seemingly increasing complexity and demands at work, while having time for family and community.
They also worried about the innovation and new technologies promoted as the way to address the work/life challenges; in particular they wondered whether they could find the significant time needed to understand and implement the new technologies being advocated.
They were mixed farmers, members of the 2050 group (based around Highbury) or the Freebairn group (from the Kulin district). Both groups, independently, were mulling over management issues they thought were crucial to the future of mixed farming systems, with the key issue being time.
Their thoughts attracted the interest of the Grain & Graze program, a collaborative partnership between Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA), Australian Wool Innovation (AWI), the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) and Land & Water Australia (LWA) that aims to help mixed farmers increase profitability in both their livestock and cropping enterprises.
Together with James Fisher and Pat Page, from WA's Department of Agriculture and Food, the farmers worked up a sub-project of the Grain & Graze research effort in the Avon region examining strategic farm management and specifically looking at balancing work, decision making and quality of life.
The aim was to find out whether "smarter" farm management could improve confidence and quality of life for the affected farmers, and in particular the proposition that increased efficiency of management would lead to improved profitability and social outcomes.
Some serious consultation followed between the researchers and the farmers involved, through discussion groups and the use of three different methods of collecting data - hand-held personal digital assistants, pen and note-book and dictaphone.
Dr Fisher and Mr Page wanted from the farmers:
� useful, personal insights about their own time management, the distribution of work and non-work time and decision-making;
� information about decision-making itself, and how they made repeatable, good decisions, particularly about aspects of mixed farming, and
� quantitative and qualitative information about the work-life balance in their farm businesses.
They came up with "some interesting observations" about the ways farmers thought, planned and made decisions.
"The participants were surprised that the amount of planning and thinking time was more than they had previously thought," Dr Fisher and Mr Page said.
"The amount of time actually put into management was more than three times what many participants considered it to be, prior to commencing and, in one case, the time actually involved in management was14 times more than the farmer thought she spent.
"As well, when and where the farmers did their thinking was often different from what they previously thought.
"A fairly consistent observation was that the actions being undertaken were planned earlier - and so were now largely in the 'doing' mode rather than 'planning'. And we found most decisions were made over a long period."
The two researchers said a large amount of thinking time for all participating farmers related to production issues.
However, particular areas of finance - purchasing, research and development and the work-home interface - occupied a large proportion of thinking time, 15 per cent or more for some individuals.
The survey had highlighted the many different levels of operation required of a farmer operating as a small business and some participants thought that the increasing complexity and magnitude of operations meant there was a need for farmers to "take the next step" and move from 'doing' to managing or overseeing more aspects on their farms.
It would be useful to get input from outside agriculture to improve farmers' management skills, because they tended to think that farming was "different", rather than looking at its similarities to other businesses and to learn from them.
Questions posed by the survey results were:
1. If farmers were able to step back and operate more as business managers, would this change their perspectives and the way their businesses are run?
2. Is there enough 'fat' in farm businesses to allow their managers to step out of an operational role? And, if so, do they want to?
3. Is there a cultural resistance to making that move?
"Producers are aspiring to improve management efforts, but, unlike other industries, there is little documented data to encourage average producers to want to go beyond their current level of management," Mr Page said.
For Strategic Farm Management trial details and results, contact Dr James Fisher on 08 9690 2129. For more information about the Grain & Graze Program in the Avon Region, contact Development Officer, Linda Leonard, on 08 9690 2191 or visit www.grainandgraze.com.au.
Grain & Graze Regional Coordinators
Avon Region - Linda Leonard - 08 9690 2191
Border Rivers Region - Rachel Charles - 07 4671 7900
Central West/Lachlan Region - Jodie Dean - 02 6895 1015
Corangamite/Glenelg-Hopkins Region - Cam Nicholson - 03 5258 3860
Eyre Peninsula Region - Alison Frischke - 08 8680 6223
Mallee Region - Zubair Shahzad - 03 50 219 103
Maranoa/Balonne Region - Stephen Ginns - 07 4620 8122
Murrumbidgee Region - Katrina Sait - 02 6924 4633
Northern Agricultural Region - Philip Barrett-Lennard - 08 94750753