Financial Literacy: Key topic at Dairy Days

MEDIA RELEASE
11 February 2011

Financial Literacy: Key topic at Dairy Days

The Dairy Women’s Network kicks off Dairy Days on Tuesday, 15 February. The national workshops, funded by DairyNZ, promise to inspire, inform and motivate New Zealand’s dairy women to take hold of their farm’s financial future.

The topic of the Dairy Days is “Building Your Farm Budget from Cashbook to Cashflow” and will be presented throughout February and March in both the North and South Islands.

“The roles and skills of women in the New Zealand dairy industry, especially when it comes to finance, is an under-utilised resource,” says Rebecca Rowe, a former rural banking manager and farm consultant and one of this year’s Dairy Days presenters.

Rowe will be presenting in the North Island and her colleague, Claire Harvey will take on the South Island. The two women will be speaking about the farm budget and how to manage it.

Ms Rowe believes, “improving financial literacy is one of the biggest opportunities to increase farm profit in the industry and these workshops offer women a massive opportunity to up-skill at an affordable cost.”

According to Ms Rowe, the workshops will have two main aspects: a technical side with discussions on financial management, and budgets and a chance to network.

“We will work with real numbers and walk away with tangible skills. Even if you don’t like numbers, this is still for you,” says Ms Rowe. “It’s about money not maths.”

Part of the day’s program will be introducing dairy women to practical, everyday tools that they can use to better their businesses, Ms Rowe said.

A fan of the web based software tool, DairyBase, she plans to spend some time showing attendees how to get the most out of it. “The great thing about DairyBase is that it is designed for individuals not accountants.”

According to Ms Rowe, DairyBase is a great tool that records a farm’s physical information and financial statements, and also provides benchmarks that allow you to compare your farm to others in the industry. The numbers provide the all-important, objective view. Farmers are then able to investigate and use comprehensive reports to drill down even further.

DairyNZ operates DairyBase, which is an investment by New Zealand dairy farmers through the dairy industry good levy. Ms Rowe says that the tool allows a very powerful opportunity to see whether you are, or are not, on the right track by seeing how other people in the industry are operating their farms.

From cutting edge online tools like DairyBase to everyday hands-on tools like a good solid budget, “Building Your Farm Budget from Cashbook to Cashflow” will offer women real financial planning information.

The seminar's topics will include: calculating a farm income from production data; dealing with major categories of expenditure; developing smart ways to record information for relevant use; building and cash flowing a budget and using a budget/cash flow for informed decision making.

With exceptional keynote speakers, and a fantastic catered lunch, the workshops offer an exciting mix of opportunities to connect with other women in the dairy industry, gain pertinent industry knowledge and get motivated and inspired to develop a solid farm budget.

For more information on the workshops call 07 838 5238 or go to www.dwn.co.nz. To find out more about DairyBase, go to www.dairybase.co.nz.

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