farmers managing cash flow

Greengrass1

Whats your system be you a beef, tillage or dairy man.
Do you budget each month?
Id be very interested in how dry stock and tillage operators manage there money for the yr

TUBBY

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Whats your system be you a beef, tillage or dairy man.
Do you budget each month?
Id be very interested in how dry stock and tillage operators manage there money for the yr

keep the payments untouched in autumn and they pay fert and meal in spring. Few cattle go a few times a year which keeps cash flow, normally June, nov for the main bunches and then odds and ends after that. Find apr and may usually leanest months tbh.

biggest cash flow tool for me is cost control and resisting big spend cause the account is healthy after selling cattle and sfp in nov. Have spreadsheet of spends. When ya get the sfp it is very easy do bit of reclaiming etc with the money and then be stuck in march cause its gone.

Greengrass1

TUBBY wrote: »

keep the payments untouched in autumn and they pay fert and meal in spring. Few cattle go a few times a year which keeps cash flow, normally June, nov for the main bunches and then odds and ends after that. Find apr and may usually leanest months tbh.

biggest cash flow tool for me is cost control and resisting big spend cause the account is healthy after selling cattle and sfp in nov. Have spreadsheet of spends. When ya get the sfp it is very easy do bit of reclaiming etc with the money and then be stuck in march cause its gone.

I be of the opinion dry stock farmers are some of the best money mangers. They just don't have enough if it

Sam Kade

Greengrass1 wrote: »

I be of the opinion dry stock farmers are some of the best money mangers. They just don't have enough if it

Exactly, not much need for budgeting just spend the bare minimum

tanko

Sam Kade wrote: »

Exactly, not much need for budgeting just spend the bare minimum

True, there's no need to manage cash if you don't have it:). Cash flow management for a lot of drystock/suckler farmers consists of using most of the money from cattle sales to pay bills and keeping as much of the SFP and headage as possible as "profit".

Timmaay

Ugh GG don't talk to me about cashflow, still here busy trying to pull figures outa my ass for the teagasc workshop I have to attend tomorrow! It's like having school homework to do all over again! Only got until March done yet, I'll be at it all night ha. Next yr tho I'll give the cashflow planner a proper shot every month!

just do it

Most suckler/ drystock farmers are part time so it's a completely different scenario

Muckit

Look isn't it cheaper than gym or green fees!!

smokey-fitz

Spend as soon as you get it. Dont have to worry about it if you dont have it

On a more professional note, try budget for the year ahead by using previous years plus an estimated percentage for rise of costs. Estimate roughly what your product will bring in and after all that you can budget for improvements with what you have left. When its all down on paper in front of you its slightly easier to see whats going out and coming in also where you can cut costs and spend more wisely.

Dawggone

Cash flow on tillage farms can be tricky.
With a mix of forward selling and offloading large amounts of produce with large purchases kinda hedges iykwim.
Sorry to say this but you need a certain amount of scale to be able to compete with say beef finishing or ayr dairying on a cash flow basis.

GRASSorMUCK

Definetly true bout arable, most larger farms operate on a + cash flow basis and off load produce to coincide with expenditure. Things like most dealerships need to meet sales target to keep agency, what they do is buy themselves to off load later and if you get them at the right time much much cheaper than list. Our yard is 2/3 stocked by one dealer due to too good to resist offers as we are usually his last resort. Things like major fuel bowser/bat wing topper, all for cost just to clear his books.

Count Mondego

I need around 15k working capital in spring. This is reserve is built up from previous autumn. Don't see a cheque till July or August. Working full time helps a lot.

larrymiller

Well it's some load of crap with the harvest, corn cut near 2 months ago. And still no returns and problem getting charged 500 per month on interest on the account

blue5000

larrymiller wrote: »

Well it's some load of crap with the harvest, corn cut near 2 months ago. And still no returns and problem getting charged 500 per month on interest on the account

Crimped a lot of mine, fcuk the interest bill:p

larrymiller

blue5000 wrote: »

Crimped a lot of mine, fcuk the interest bill:p

Kept 10 tonnes for rolling.
2 months interest on 30k hard to fcuk it to that

Greengrass1

larrymiller wrote: »

Well it's some load of crap with the harvest, corn cut near 2 months ago. And still no returns and problem getting charged 500 per month on interest on the account

Id tell them to go shove that interest up thete arse. Thats some load of bollix

Miname

I try to keep bills to a minimum I nearly summer. Usually keep a handful of bull weanlings over the winter every year to pay for fertiliser and silage contractor. Most major jobs will be done from July to October so that if all else fails at least the sfp will be there to help prop it up. The majority of my income off the farm comes in around now but as time goes by it becomes easier to work out what's needed and when. Things have to be planned well in advance with any major spending. If nothing beef farming is at least predictable. A certain percentage left aside for maintainable, a certain amount for stock and so on.I'm definitely curious to know how full time lads manage.

larrymiller

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Id tell them to go shove that interest up thete arse. Thats some load of bollix

They don't care. Waiting on markets to settle blah blah blah..

Dawggone

larrymiller wrote: »

They don't care. Waiting on markets to settle blah blah blah..

Fact is merchants have paid over the odds for grains this year. End users are having to pay.

locky76

I've upped from producing 20 weanlings to finishing 70 cattle and I've found managing the cash flow to be incredibly tough....
I get a stocking loan in the spring and use this to buy cattle and have a bit left over to pay off some personal debt (I'm shifting my debt burden from personal onto the farm)
I let all amounts to be paid go the full credit limit term and I then pay by credit card thus adding another 7 weeks of free credit, I've four bank accounts with €20 of credit left on each account but I've about €70k of prime beef trotting around the fields... :-)
It's getting easier year on year though and it's really setting up the family finances for a comfortable time in 10 years (off farm investments are coming along nicely)

Bored housewife

Sounds like fraud to me and that you are being ripped off . Is it that the grain merchant is deliberately withholding the payment for your grain sale to the company so as to create a bigger deficit on your account by not crediting your account with the full price of the grain. In the meantime you are being charged interest on your purchases? The merchant has had the use of your grain from the day it was delivered to the merchant's yard, the full value of this sale to the merchant should be reflected in your account on the day of delivery. This is an interest scam and a common trick in the industry to create false interest charges on accounts.