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| Rural Industries |
Objectives
Background
In central Queensland, the Queensland Department of Primary Industries is conducting a series of workshops to improve the business skills of farm families. This work has revealed that while we have ideas about what the ideal record keeping and management system might be, our knowledge of how farmers (including farm families) presently manage their farms, and to what extent they are prepared to accept systems we propose, is relatively poor.
Outcomes
Three surveys of producers in central Queensland
have been conducted. The accounting skills of the general farming
population are very varied. These surveys have shown that the
skills that producers are learning at workshops are being incorporated
into bookkeeping practices but the influence on decision making
was less direct.
Financial decision-making skill has traditionally been thought of in terms of extent of use of standard quantitative tools such as cash flow budgets or gross margin analysis. The farmers' view of decision-making is far more qualitative. The research emphases that appropriate indicators of decision making ability would also include communication and information-integration skills.
Implications
The workshops in central Queensland have been very
successful in equipping a broad cross section of farmers with
tools to improve their business management. This has provided
a firm base on which to further develop their decision-making
skills. A new follow-up training course has now been developed
to focus on the process of decision-making. Training in farm management
processes needs to be based on real farm decisions.
RIRDC Project No: DAQ-123A
RESEARCHERS: Mr J D Daniels, Dr E J Woods
ORGANISATION: QLD Department of Primary Industries
GPO Box 46 BRISBANE QLD 4001PHONE: 07 239 3368
FAX: 07 239 3379
Last updated: 10 October 1996
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http://www.rirdc.gov.au/pub/compendium/93-94/index-b.html