Regional Roundup May 2016

What we do

Rural Financial Counselling Services are:

Free, independent and confidential
Staffed by qualified and experienced Rural Financial Counsellors (RFCs) who understand farming and business – our RFCs are required to have a Diploma of Financial Counselling as minimum qualification, and have years of experience in assisting farming businesses
For primary producers of livestock, milk, honey, fruit, crops, wool, meat, vegetables, eggs, fish, plants, trees and logs
For small businesses who mainly support primary production such as: fencing, shearing sheep, controlling weeds or agricultural pests, managing stock, planting crops etc.
Able to assist farm or small agribusinesses experiencing or at risk of financial hardship
Able to come to your place of business or you can come and see us.

Assistance when

Rural Financial Counselling Services can assist businesses affected by:

Drought/water issues
Low commodity prices
Natural disasters
Structural adjustment
Industry downturns
Low equity/tight cash flow
Difficulties with lenders or access to finance
Unpaid creditors/debtors
Market disruptions
Changes in personal circumstances
Farm accidents or illness
Share farming/succession agreements/ contracts.

How can we help you

Rural Financial Counselling Services can help you:

Understand your financial position and the viability of your enterprise
Identify options to improve your financial position
Develop a plan to implement your chosen options, and implement that plan
Provide information, referrals, and support to access, government or industry grants and programs
Assist you to deal (whether through meetings or otherwise) with lending institutions in relation to:
- Applications and contracts with those institutions; and
- Processes relating to farm debt mediation
Assist you to identify the need for advice from professional service providers, and provide support with preparation for meetings with professional service providers.

News

NE Regional Soil Health Conference

NECMA conference

North East Regional Soil Health Conference - 14 May 2021 at Beechworth is for ALL land managers, agriculture industry groups and soil health service providers in North East Victoria.
Read more ...

Farm Finance getting prepared 2021 Webinar

Farm Finance

The team at the Young Farmer Business Network have put together a series of sessions designed to build skills in financial planning and business resilience for your farm business.
Read more ...

Details: Published: 29 May 2016; Last Updated: 28 January 2017

Regional Round-up is a monthly newsletter providing an overview into the environmental and business conditions affecting farmers and rural businesses in the Goulburn Valley and North East Victoria.

Dairy

Both Fonterra and Murray Goulburn suppliers are dealing with a step down in milk price announced in late April early May. In both cases the cut is retrospective and will apply to milk supplied from the 1st July 2015.

Murray Goulburn has not finalised its revised price. It is expecting to be between $4.75 and $5.00 per Kg so will pay $5.49 for the remaining months. The balance of the shortfall is to be recovered from suppliers’ milk proceeds over the next 3 years. MG has recently announced an option for suppliers to pay back the shortfall earlier.

The volume of information emerging from both factories explaining the milk price drop, loans and socialized debt has been immense. This has been challenging for dairy farmers to keep up with, let alone managing the impact of the price drop upon their business.

Cropping/Sheep

May rain has been beneficial to many croppers and the warm dry autumn is no longer a topic of conversation. Sowing has progressed well, and it appears a sense of optimism is present amongst croppers given good rain and weather conditions for crop establishment.

Beef

Good rains followed up by warm weather has enabled some good grass growth across the north east, which has eased feeding pressures and alleviated many concerns about a tough growing season. Significant fodder is still being fed out in areas that have been grazed heavily during autumn. Water availability next irrigation season will be a significant factor in determining stock numbers for the months ahead.

Irrigation

The irrigation season finished on the 15th May and Irrigators were aided by good rains across the region in the last weeks of the season.
Storage levels in Lake Eildon are at 32% against 57% last year. The Hume is holding 24% (against 25% LY) and Dartmouth 44% (against 75%LY). GMW resources storage levels website.
Low or Nil allocations for the opening of the 2016/17 seasons remain the likely outlook.
Water prices averaged $235 for May (down from $245). (Temp water).