Teagasc has urged farmers to complete a profit monitor to assess the financial performance of their business in 2021.

In a statement, Teagasc encouraged such farmers to contact their Teagasc adviser to arrange the analysis.

Teagasc said its profit monitor is the only financial package that “links the technical and physical performance on the farm to the financial performance”.

Improvements

Teagasc farm management department acting head Kevin Connolly said: “The Teagasc profit monitor shows farmers the impact that improvements in technical and physical efficiency have on the overall profitability of their farm.”

Connolly described how the process also allows a farmer to compare their performance with other farmers and discussion group members.

“Given that farmers are facing a year of rising costs, assessing the starting position of the business is the first step towards managing costs for 2022.

“Many additional features and reports are now available to help farmers assess their farm financial performance. We are encouraging farmers across all enterprises, in the first two months of 2022, to input their 2021 information for dairy, cattle, sheep, tillage and pig farms to get their own individual profit monitor completed.”

More detail

Teagasc noted that through using an enhanced balance sheet analysis, a more detailed analysis on the asset and liability aspects of the farm is possible through the 2022 version of the profit monitor.

“This new balance sheet analysis is available as an option for each individual farm and is useful to check whether the farm business is growing and developing as expected over a longer term.

“An analysis on the labour hourly input to run the farm business from both paid and unpaid labour is also looked at in detail on the reports”, said a spokesperson.

Teagasc director of knowledge transfer Stan Lalor said: “Areas such as animal health and veterinary costs, young stock-rearing costs and dairy stock contract-rearing charges, among others, can now be examined and benchmarked.”

Information needed

The key pieces of information farmers need to complete the profit monitor include details on farm sales and purchases of stock and farm production, an ICBF monthly stock inventory table, details of scheme payments, mart or factory sheets, details of farm operating costs which can be collated from bank statements, cheque books (if used) and merchant invoices or dockets.

Farmers wishing to complete a Teagasc profit monitor can contact their local Teagasc advisory office, email profit.monitor@teagasc.ie or visit www.teagasc.ie/profitmonitor for more information.