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Your Farm Business PodcastAuthor: Lucy Krause
Welcome to Your Farm Business Podcast, bringing you the best in farm business thinking. We aim to bring experts to the farmer, to help manage todays farm business risks. Mike Krause, CEO and Founder of P2PAgri, helps farmers to run more profitable businesses by providing analytics and scenario analysis from their own data, to guide their business decisions. Language: en-au Genres: Business, Education, How To, Management Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Know Your Numbers: Inside the Farm Office of a 6,500ha Esperance Cropper | Lisa Jeitz | Ep 15
Episode 14
Tuesday, 28 July, 2026
Most farmers are told to know their numbers. Lisa Jeitz actually does. In this episode of the Your Farm Business Podcast, Mike Krause steps inside the farm office of a 6,500 hectare cropping operation in Esperance, WA, run by someone who spent more than a decade as a farm business management consultant before becoming the farmer herself.Lisa shares the systems that keep the business on track: cash flow as the number one budget (under a company structure, staying solvent is a legal obligation for directors), printed reports for the family every second month, and a 20-plus year spreadsheet of yields, prices and input costs with no gaps in it.She also explains the grain marketing approach that helps her sleep at night: standing targets of $400 plus for wheat and $800 plus for GM canola, set so every tonne sold locks in a profit, not just break even. Plus the KPI that keeps a self-confessed "shiny new things" machinery habit honest: finance payments capped at 10% of gross farm income.WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:Why cash flow budgeting comes first when you farm under a company structureHow comparing planned vs actual gross margins sharpens next year's decisionsWhy Lisa budgets with 5 to 10 year average costs (memory says everything was cheap; the spreadsheet says otherwise)Setting grain price targets that lock in profit, not break evenThe 10% rule: keeping machinery finance under 10% of gross farm incomeWhy new technology has to pay for itself within one to five yearsThe management balance sheet: measuring growth with and without rising land valuesWhy they chase more profit per hectare instead of expansionSuccession thinking: why the kids can't come home before 25Lisa's advice for anyone starting in the farm office: do the numbers thoroughly and keep the recordsCHAPTERS:0:00 Welcome 01:02 From farm consultant to Esperance farmer 02:44 The farm: 6,500 hectares, 100% cropping 04:58 Cash flow comes first: budgeting as a company director 06:50 Gross margins: planned vs actuals 08:52 Twenty years of records: budgeting on long-term averages 10:17 Pricing crop two years ahead 11:52 Price targets that lock in profit, not break even 14:02 The 10% machinery finance rule 16:20 Optimal timing: the key driver of success 17:03 Why water use efficiency doesn't suit Esperance 19:16 A farmer's balance sheet vs the accountant's P&L 20:22 Measuring growth without rising land values 21:43 Five year budgets and the expansion question 23:52 Their "why": more profit from the same land 27:12 The next generation: not home before 25 28:35 Hindsight and advice: do the numbers early 31:07 "Charlie from Clarkson's Farm" and closing thoughtsABOUT THE GUEST:Lisa Jeitz farms 6,500 hectares of wheat and canola with her husband Kirk at Esperance, WA. A farmer's daughter with an ag science degree from UWA, she worked as an agronomist before spending more than a decade as a farm business management consultant with an accounting firm, experience she now applies daily in her own farm office.LINKS & RESOURCES:P2P Agri (free demo & Essentials tier): https://p2pagri.com.auPlan to Profit financial literacy course (search "plan to profit tocal")"Farming the Business" by Mike Krause (GRDC)SUBSCRIBE for more conversations with the people shaping the future of Australian farm business.#YourFarmBusinessPodcast #P2PAgri #FarmFinance #FarmBudgeting #AustralianAgricultureLearn more about P2P Agri: https://p2pagri.com.au
