Early to Mid Career Farmer Workshop: Farm Finance 101

The Details

What:     Farm Finance 101 (The business of farming: understanding the story behind the numbers)

When:    Thursday 18 June, 2026 

Where:   Naracoorte RSL & District Bowling Club, parking and access off Riverside Drive, rear of Naracoorte Art Gallery              

Time:     9.00am to 4.30pm (incl morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea)

Cost:      $25 per person, additional MFMG Primary Producer members $15 (multiple generations invited to attend).

Registrations close: Monday 15 June, 2026

Presenter: Chris Scheid, Moore Australia, with introduction by Dr Mel Fraser.

In the third of this series of Limestone Coast Early to Mid Career Farmer Group workshops, we've secured leading farm financial advisor Chris Scheid to guide us through the fundamentals of farm business, with 'Farm Finance 101'.

Using a real life case study, participants will essentially be doing as farm business advisers do at farm business client visits - analysing the case study’s business profitability and banking indicators.  Your own farm numbers are not required. Some of the concepts discussed will be well known to those in your business that ‘do the books’.  As such, to get the most benefit from your attendance, it is highly recommended to encourage the financial decision makers in your business to attend as well. If you’re looking to take on that role in your business or just want to know more about your business (than just GST), having the financial decision makers in your business attend will be even more beneficial to you.

At this hands-on workshop, you will be ‘entering the numbers’ with an experienced farm business adviser (coach) there to assist you.  ‘Entering the numbers’, and the discussion that follows, will assist to have confidence in understanding the case study figures.  We will then together, analyse the case study business to be able to clearly see what the case study business needs to do to improve farm business profitability and bank ratios (how the bank sees the case study business). 

Having completed our Farm Finance 101 workshop, at home, you will be able to use the same data entry worksheets to do the same analysis for your business with financial decision makers in your business who have also attended Farm Finance 101. 
 

This workshop will cover:

• Navigating key financial documents – what do tax financials tell us and what they don’t tell us?
• Reading the numbers - what story does a Balance Sheet and a Profit and Loss Statement tell us about our business? 
• Take control of your business finances by understanding how the bank sees your business – understand ratios and how to improve your bank ratios to lower your businesses risk and interest rates
• If you're starting out in business, what does the bank look for to be a viable lender?
• Best practice software & setting up for success – automating budgets and reporting; what software does what
•  

You will leave the workshop:

• Understanding your farm business finances (profit drivers) operation from a financial point of view
• Clear focus - on what is required to improve business resilience (profitability, cash flow and bank ratios)
• Confidence - in understanding how banks assess farm businesses for banking
   
• Knowledge - on farm cashbooks programs – how ‘automation’ can assist to set your business up for future success
• Insight – into what the Agri Business banking trends are at the moment?
• Building resilience – what are the financial settings/metrics required to manage dry spells and seasonal variability? 
• Confidence - in how to contribute to the farm business conversation and building resilience and improving decision-making in response to drought and seasonal variability

Presenters

Chris Scheid, Partner and Director of Business Advisory at Moore Australia

For over 30 years, Chris has supported South Australian farmers and graziers in 3 main work areas:

1. farm businesses – structuring farm businesses for profitability and financing,
2. farming families – family succession planning and chairing farm family advisory boards (incl banks, accountants and wealth advisers ‘around the table’). 
3. in a training and educational capacity where Chris has led numerous training programs across SA.

Chris’ leadership and deep industry knowledge has enabled the many farming families he has worked with to build profitable and future-ready farm businesses.

Dr Melissa Fraser, Soil Function Consulting

Dr Melissa Fraser is the Limestone Coast’s resident soil scientist, working across research and development, extension and education and on-farm diagnosis of constraints. She fell in love with the region when she started her PhD in 2005 and has spent more than 20 years working across SA, Qld and the NT exploring solutions to the challenges that our farmers face. Dr Fraser is passionate about soil health and the role it plays in growing healthy plants, crops, animals and humans. Mel's super power is to make complicated simple, and to 

This project is supported by the South Australian Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub, through funding from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.

AgRi-Silience is delivered by Livestock SA and jointly funded through the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund and Government of South Australia.