Farmanco Facts - October 2025 Edition

tnankivell
15 hours ago
2 min read

Thanks to Farmanco team members — Ben Curtis (Esperance) David Cameron (Moora) Eric Nankivell (Albury, NSW) and Kelly Ryan (Rivervale) for their contributions this month.

Subscribe to Farmanco Facts via our website, or by contacting our Perth Admin staff admin@farmanco.com.au

Should you Pay Farm Workers Bonuses?

Ben Curtis (Farm Management Consultant)

Can boost productivity, improve retention and align interests.
Can be costly, may create tension, may create expectations.
May be challenges with selective bonuses.
Be clear about the how, why and when.

As farms grow in complexity and scale, many of our clients are exploring new ways to motivate and retain their workforce. One increasingly popular strategy is offering performance-based bonuses.

Swathing Cereals to Improve Weed Control with Harvest Weed Seed Destruction (HWSD)

David Cameron (Agronomy Consultant)

Swathing cereals can reduce losses of grass weed seeds prior to harvesting with a HWSM.
Barley grass and brome grass are more problematic for getting weed seeds into the harvester.
Swathing is more common with barley but can be done with wheat and oats.

There is an increasing trend toward swathing cereals in the medium and high rainfall zones to make the most of harvest weed seed destruction (HWSD) in harvesters.

Profit Series: East versus West

Eric Nankivell (Farm Management Consultant)

Farmanco is celebrating 10 years of consulting to businesses in NSW / VIC.
Celebrations include an opportunity for 48 clients from the east to tour WA in 2026.
NSW / VIC benchmark data over the last decade is mostly comparable to WA’s HRZ.
Rainfall zone, geographic zone and latitude and important considerations in the data.
Winter rainfall, the ‘finish to the season’ and the risk of frost influence WUE within zones.
Yields in the east are higher primarily because of irrigation. WUE results are similar.
With better yields and lower risk, costs are higher in the east, ROAM is virtually the same.
Across Australia we are efficient and innovative and ongoing improvement is a priority.

In our benchmarking service The Profit Series, a key question that comes up from clients on both sides of the country is to what degree they are influenced by results from different zones.

Have your Say in Shaping the Future of Grains Research

Kelly Ryan (Project Manager)

GRDC is calling on Growers to help shape investment in ‘blue sky’ research.
Valuable opportunity for Growers to have their voices heard and influence the direction of RD&E.
For the GRDC 2023-28 RD&E plan, Growers made it clear they wanted more investment in frontier areas.

GRDC is looking beyond immediate challenges to explore ambitious, high-risk, high-reward research that could unlock the next wave of productivity and profitability.

Have you tried CashPeek yet? It is a cloud-based budgeting and cash flow forecasting platform by Aglytica, designed for farms, small businesses, and their advisors. It connects directly to accounting software like Xero and MYOB to create live, visual forecasts that automatically update based on actuals, helping users manage cash flow and plan for the future. Key features include easy budget setup, collaboration tools for sharing with clients and banks, and the ability to create reports for reviews.

Our Farm Management Consultants use this great Budgeting tool with all their Farmanco Clients.