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 structure
• How comparing planned vs actual gross margins sharpens next year's decisions
• Why 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 even
• The 10% rule: keeping machinery finance under 10% of gross farm income
• Why new technology has to pay for itself within one to five years
• The management balance sheet: measuring growth with and without rising land values
• Why they chase more profit per hectare instead of expansion
• Succession thinking: why the kids can't come home before 25
• Lisa's advice for anyone starting in the farm office: do the numbers thoroughly and keep the records

CHAPTERS:

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 thoughts

ABOUT 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.au
• Plan 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.

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Learn more about P2P Agri: https://p2pagri.com.au