FOR ASPIRING FARMERS

Writing your farm plan: the summary, and why you're worth backing

Anyone reading your plan, whether it's a retiring farmer or someone backing you, should know within the first paragraph who you are, what you want, and why it's a good idea.

That's the job of the first two sections of the Farm Ownership Plan in You Can Own a Farm: the summary, and you and your family.

Write the summary last

The summary gives your reader a high level overview of your plan and how you'll pay for it. Write it last, after you've set out the whole plan. Each point needs only a sentence or two, but expand on your key selling points.

Cover:

• Who prepared the proposal: your name, address, email and phone
• Your skills and experience that make you worth backing
• What you want the backing for
• The farm's location
• What you plan to do with the capital
• What you plan to produce
• Where you see the farm going in the years ahead

It might open like this: "We are an experienced farming family seeking backing to buy the farm we currently lease in South Australia, and to buy more stock to scale up our current operations."

Or like this: "This proposal is for a partnership to buy the dairy farm we currently lease in south west Victoria's reliable rainfall area."

Be clear and concise. We see many proposals that don't make it clear up front exactly what they're for.

Who puts in what, and who owns what

Then set out the arrangement you're proposing.

Start with how the farm will be paid for and owned at the start. It might be a mix of what you put in, the share the retiring farmer keeps, a loan, and what any backer puts in. Say roughly how it splits.

Then say how much you're seeking in total, and what the backer would hold: a share of the farm, all of it, or a lease arrangement with you.

Finally, say what the backer gets back, such as lease payments or a percentage of profits.

For example: "This proposal is to raise the capital required for land purchase and establishment costs. We plan to lease the land and pay an increasing return over the term." In that example, the backer's money buys the land, and you lease it from them at a rent that rises over time.

Why it's a great decision for a backer

• How you plan to take over and improve the land and infrastructure
• How you'll improve operations
• How you'll increase profits and the farm's value
• How you'll make sure the backer feels good about the decision

You and your family

This section shows how your skills, experience and passion make you the best person to run this farm, and the right person for a retiring farmer or backer to trust.

• Who's going to do what on the farm: names, ages, who's in the family, where you're from, where you live now, and the role each person plans to have
• Your relevant skills: farming, animal husbandry, financial and business management, trades
• Licences and qualifications
• Your farming and farm management experience
• Education, training, apprenticeships, work and volunteering
• Your connections to the local community

This is your back story. You don't need every ability it takes to run a successful farm business, but you do need to present strongly in one or more key areas.

What gives you a passion for owning a farm? What makes you stand out from other aspiring farmers, and best suited to this land? Promote yourself truthfully. Be bold, but be real.

If you haven't farmed yet

Start building your skills now. Work on a farm and put in the hard yards. Most aspiring farmers need other people to back them, and a strong reference from a farmer about your diligence and work ethic makes people more confident in you.

If you can, start farming on someone else's land. Lease a bit of dirt, run a few head of cattle, grow mushrooms. Whatever you can. It shows you're on the way to a farm of your own.

If you're already running a farm operation with your own money, and making sacrifices to do it, you look like someone worth backing.

The full guide, You Can Own a Farm, is free at cultivatefarms.com/resources.

You can build your own plan at cultivatefarms.com/plan.