The NSW DPI website provides links to Farm Enterprise budgets for farmers to use to run their operations. These provide a guide to the relative profitability of similar enterprises and an indication of the different management practices used.
The aim of these budgets is to provide producers with an additional planning tool to help evaluate options. The budgets presented are meant to be a projection of price expectations in the near future, rather than a statement of the recent past.
It is extremely difficult to accurately predict future prices and other variables. However, by using the best available information, it is still better to evaluate your options by making your own projections and combining them into a business plan for your property. These budgets will help you in developing your own budgets.
These budgets need to be applied carefully when used to decide a farm’s overall enterprise mix. If major changes are being considered, more comprehensive budgeting techniques are required to indicate the real profitability of the situation.
The degree to which these budgets reflect actual returns will be influenced not only by general factors common to all farms, such as prices and seasonal conditions, but also by the individual farm characteristics, such as soil type, crop rotation, pasture quality and management.
(Source: NSW DPI Website)