AHDB to roll out 'whole-farm' benchmarking programme

AHDB has created the new role of 'farm benchmarking manager' to enable more farmers to evaluate crop performance and improve cost management across whole farm businesses.

Doreen Anderson will head up a team responsible for rolling out a new business management programme focused on benchmarking and peer-to-peer learning across crop and livestock enterprises.

Anderson has a wealth of experience helping farmers benchmark their costs of production, having worked at AHDB since 2012 on various projects including dairy and beef benchmarking, as well as more recently Monitor Farms and Arable Business Groups – for growers who want to improve their business management skills and better understand the costs of production.

She said: “This is an exciting time for me and the team as we are at the beginning of an interesting and challenging journey. AHDB has long been involved in benchmarking programmes at sector level but a whole-farm approach will prove more beneficial to the farmers and give a better picture of their farm as a business by looking at all their enterprises together.”

Her appointment is part of AHDB’s renewed drive to upskill farmers and growers by providing them with the tools and understanding to monitor performance relative to their peers and improve their business decision-making.

The team will cover the whole UK, with five regional officers working across potatoes, cereals, oilseeds, beef, lamb and later dairy.

Its primary focus is to help farmer and grower groups upload figures onto AHDB’s new benchmarking software, Farmbench,interpret the results, and discuss ways of reducing costs of production. It will also be training consultants, advisers and vets to use Farmbench with their own discussion groups.

Anderson added: “The number of groups is always increasing and so our diaries are forever full. The advantage of working with discussion groups is we can help farmers who wouldn’t necessarily think of attending a benchmarking group get together to discuss their recent issues with their peers and help them make informed decisions based on the reports.

“Our ambition is to get far more of our levy payers involved and help them to start seeing real benefits to their businesses.”