Livestock Advisor Essentials program builds capacity and connection

As global demand for sustainably produced protein increases, livestock businesses continue to evolve and become more complex.

Advisors play a critical role in supporting livestock producers to manage their businesses successfully amid constant change. However, facilitating practice change on the ground, across a diverse range of operations and environments, requires a multifaceted skillset — part scientist, part business analyst and part psychologist. Such a skillset can often take a lifetime of experience to attain.

In 2021, MLA invested in a 12-month pilot program – Livestock Advisor Essentials – to help early career livestock professionals across south-eastern Australia fast-track their development. The program has since gone national, with a northern program being delivered throughout 2023.

Fast-tracking professional development for livestock advisors

Jo Jones from Pinion Advisory worked with MLA to develop the pilot program.

“Livestock advisors often start their professional journey with a fairly specific set of knowledge and skills and a limited professional network,” Jo said.

“We wanted to build a program that would enhance participants’ understanding of the fundamentals of livestock businesses, develop their knowledge, skills and confidence, and create an opportunity to build valuable professional connections.

“For every advisor that can achieve practice change, the potential impact is greater than if you invested the same amount in an individual producer,” Jo said.

The pilot participants were exposed to four key content areas, delivered by industry professionals renowned for their particular skillsets:

• Optimising pasture production, delivered by Basil Doonan, Pinion Advisory
• Building blocks of business, delivered by John Francis, Agrista
• Meating the market, delivered by Elke Hocking, private consultant
• Influence and impact, Jill Rigney, The Right Mind.

The program was delivered through a combination of face-to-face workshops and online delivery and provided multiple opportunities for participants to practice their skills and build their connections.

“Feedback from the program has been overwhelmingly positive and for many participants the experience delivered beyond their expectations and has given them the confidence to head in a new direction,” Jo said.

Jillian Kelly: Final pieces of the farm business puzzle

Jillian Kelly was the north-west NSW region’s district vet with Local Land Services (LLS) for more than 12 years, covering an area of about 82,000km². She knew her technical knowledge was just one part of the broader farm business puzzle, yet she felt she was missing some of the pieces.

“Having been immersed in farm businesses in western NSW for more than 17 years, I knew my advice had an impact on the whole farm business, but I was lacking some of the business tools I needed to make a more holistic impact,” Jillian said.

For Jillian, the Livestock Advisor Essentials program delivered the missing pieces of the puzzle. With a professional network behind her, she found the confidence to strike out on her own as a private consultant.

“Not only do I now have the tools to support my clients in a more ‘whole-of-business’ capacity, I also have a network of experience I can lean on when I need support.”

John Francis: The power of critical thinking

Farm business management consultant, John Francis, Agrista, has more than 10 years’ experience in agricultural consultancy and a further 15 years’ experience in production agriculture (agronomy).

He delivered the ‘Building blocks of business’ workshop as part of the Livestock Advisor Essentials pilot program and helped participants develop confidence and skills in financial literacy, critical thinking and the ability to do simple cost-benefit analysis to support decision making.

“Often I see early-career advisors who simply accept the production-focused rhetoric they are exposed to without questioning it from a profitability perspective,” John said.

“A lot of livestock advisors have strong technical production backgrounds but haven’t been exposed to critical thinking in an economically disciplined way.

“I encourage these advisors to look at the bottom line and critically evaluate it through a productivity lense.”

For participants such as Jillian, whose technical strengths lie on the production side of the fence, these new-found business skills have been invaluable.

“John gave us spreadsheets and taught us how to use them. He explained the principles of a profitable livestock business and what the figures mean,” Jillian said.

“I now use partial budgets with my clients regularly, which allows me to combine the technical and financial impacts of various management options I might put on the table.”

Sam Neville and Jill Rigney: Influence without authority

Sam Neville is a business analyst for Paraway Pastoral and, for the past four years, has been working alongside Paraway’s managers across their pastoral businesses.

With tertiary qualifications and a background in agribusiness, Sam has worked through a spreadsheet or two in his time – but at 27 years of age, encouraging station managers (who may have more than 30 years of pastoral management experience under their belt) to implement new approaches has its challenges.

“A challenging part of my role is influencing without authority,” Sam explained.

Sam participated in the Livestock Advisor Essentials pilot and found Jill Rigney’s session on influence and impact offered insights into the fundamentals of human engagement, and the processes and frameworks he can utilise to support sustained influence in his advisory role.

“There’s plenty of great information out there, but unless we get commitment and buy-in from those in a position to impact change, we won’t achieve adoption and implementation,” Sam said.

Jill Rigney believes the key to success for early-career advisors is to combine the technical elements with the human elements.

“Advisors are there to drive the industry and they want to help business,” Jill said.

“Business is purely transactional, but it’s how we manage ourselves that determines success in business. You don’t get to do anything unless you can engage and build relationships and connections.”