Agri Advisors

How long is a piece of string?

"Consultants" come in all shapes and sizes and are really just another contractor, bringing skills that you might not have yourself (such as Agronomy or nutrition).

Generic business consultancy is a different kettle of fish, but enables you to look at your operations and finances through a different pair of eyes.

A high quality business consultancy intervention could cost upwards of £2,000 per day, but often with spectacular results.
 

Oldwalls

New Member
As with every profession, there are good ones and not so good ones. I have been on both sides of the fence having started farming at 26, and milked cows for nearly 20 years. I employed a consultant for most of that time and found it beneficial most of the time.
Following the sale of our herd, I worked for Promar for 4 years, and witnessed at first hand the full range of consultants from the brilliant to the very poor, likewise the standard of farmers were very similar.
If you are dealing with a brilliant technical farmer, you tend not to do much on cow performance, but more on financials, either bench marking, but more probably using their profits to develop the business further.
If you are dealing with a poor technical farmer, there is huge scope to work with, because the difference in their costs can be over 10ppl!! The problem with some of these guys is that they don't believe they are poor, and wont change anything, therefore remain inefficient, and then blame the consultant!
We did offer a money back guarantee if we didn't improve their performance by more than their annual fee, and this could be around £300 per month for a monthly half day visit.
 

Steevo

Member
Location
Gloucestershire
We did offer a money back guarantee if we didn't improve their performance by more than their annual fee, and this could be around £300 per month for a monthly half day visit.

Can’t fault that if it’s kept to fairly by both sides. A good way to grow a consultancy firm’s reputation too.

Too many bad consultants out there which taint the good ones. Trouble is at £100/hr or so you don’t know if they’re any good until you’ve spend a fair chunk.

As said though, a lot depends on the farm’s willingness to accept constructive comment and be prepared to act on it.
 

Oldwalls

New Member
£300 for half a day's work, is the reason I won't use a consultant. Anyone that thinks that they are worth that money, is living in a different world from the one I'm in.

A favourite saying amongst the agri supply sector, is "that farmers know the cost of everything and the value of nothing", I am not saying this is correct here, but just as an example if I purchased something for £5k, and I made £10k by having it I would get on with it, no matter how expensive it looked.
 

Steevo

Member
Location
Gloucestershire
A favourite saying amongst the agri supply sector, is "that farmers know the cost of everything and the value of nothing", I am not saying this is correct here, but just as an example if I purchased something for £5k, and I made £10k by having it I would get on with it, no matter how expensive it looked.

Would you spend £5k if you didn’t know whether it would make you £10k?

Consultants will guarantee you the bill, but that’s the only guarantee...
 

Oldwalls

New Member
Very few if any investments are guaranteed, but before employing a consultant, most people would get them to look at the current situation, and highlight were improvements could be made, and a timeframe for it to occur, and then hold them to it.
I cant recall any other companies offering a money back guarantee.
 

GTB

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
There are good and bad consultants as with every other occupation. I have found it very beneficial at times to get someone from outside the business to come in and look at things with a fresh pair of eyes, even if they say carry on doing what you're doing. Sometimes something is glaringly obvious to someone from the outside but we're too busy and too close to see it.
 

Doc

Member
Livestock Farmer
I'm not a 'farm consultant' in this context but have worked with quite a few who reckon to be.
As ever, you get what you pay for.
As an example, I have worked quarterly with a Veterinary dairy specialist on three dairy units which appeared tight and well run. The tweaks and modifications suggested easily made £50k in year one to their units in both efficiency of costings, market timings of production as well as productivity increases by observation and analysis.
The first took him on about 5 years ago at my suggestion. They are still using him. Speaks for itself and he charges about £150/hr plus travel with most work being off Farm recording/data analysis.
Sometimes simple things - annual feed quality fluctuations, feed access, cow flow, track condition, cubicle hygiene and comfort, timing of service for autumn milk and heifer sales etc etc, can have real impact and it focuses management discipline to an objective and sets targets and timelines for implementation of change.
The best and smartest businesses always use others knowledge selectively to their advantage. In agribusiness its agronomists, Vets, Nutritionists ( I mean proper PhD types rather than feed salesmen), accountants, solicitors, even bank managers etc.
 

Hooby Farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
roe valley
My claim to fame is that my uncle is a personal consultant to the CEO of Wells Fargo and few other ceos in big corruptions...wooops i mean corporations. Over the last couple of years he has been invaluable to me and my businesses since hes started to help me out. I can see a huge difference from how dad and i used to do things compared to now (not agri specific). The right consultant does work but you need someone who is tried and tested. On the other side you need to be open to changes or try things in a different way. That was the big thing for us, he came in with no emotion to the business and was very clinical and cold which i found on personal level very hard to accept. He still doesnt understand why i farm . His first recommendation was stop farming, you'll make X amount more if you dont
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
hi all, does anyone use agri advisors/consultants?
if so, how much do they cost, and for ultimately what benefits?

For some aspects of the business, yes. Benchmarking, major strategy and crop walking mainly. It might be expensive to hire a professional but an amateur is much more costly. If they can add at least 10x their cost to the business in terms of value added then I'm very interested. A college graduate who copies & pastes John Nix pocketbook figures back to me for £120/hour won't last long. I have my own copy thanks!

Some times a consultant will tell you what you already know to be true but as above, it is about what drives a valuable decision making process. An outisider's view into your business can be very valuable. The real waste of money is an advisor hired by someone else who the prinicpal then ignores just to make a point. :banghead: Some of my best advice came from a mentor who did it for free and some of the worst came from a consultant who charged a lot of money but had their own agenda. Mostly, I'm happy that they provide good value - farming is a small world and word soon gets around if they are no good.
 
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