WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE IRISH DAIRY FARMERS WHO USE

Profit Monitor is a financial analysis package used by the Teagasc advisory service. Teagasc have been promoting the ‘Profit-Monitoring ’ style of financial analysis for over a decade. The concept involves taking a close look at the performance of the farm business for the last completed production year and comparing the principal physical and financial aspects of the farm business. Just over 1,000 dairy farmers (4.5 per cent of all Irish dairy farmers or 9 per cent of Teagasc dairy farmer clients) completed Profit Monitor analysis for the 2005 production year. This study aimed to identify the attitudes and objectives common to regular dairy farmer users of Teagasc Profit Monitor. The study also made an initial assessment of the opinions of these regular dairy farmer users towards the concept of benchmarking analysis as carried out by Teagasc Profit Monitor. Farmer’s attitudes and objectives were ascertained by means of a questionnaire containing a series of fifty statements. The statements were based on those used by Willock et al. (1999) in their study of decision making on farms. The key finding from a Teagasc perspective was that 84 per cent of respondents indicated that Profit Monitor completion has enabled them to increase their farm income. Those farmers who agreed that completing Profit Monitor was worth the effort also tended to agree (1) that it is an essential farm financial management tool; and (2) that it helps me to make better decisions for my farm business