There was an enthusiastic response from a group of agribusiness students to topics covered in talks at this year's Farmers Breakfast in York last month.
Students from the Charles Sturt University Bachelor of Agricultural Business Management at Muresk have attended the breakfast every year since the course started in 2014.
These are the last group in the degree program which ends when they graduate early next year.
Head of the Central Regional TAFE School of Agribusiness professor Christine Storer said the topics covered at the breakfast were relevant to subjects studied by the students.
"The breakfast enables them to meet people working in areas like farm management, rural finance and law," she said.
"The staff and students commend the organizers on the quality of the speakers and relevance of topics to their studies."
More than 40 people gathered to hear speakers on topics relevant to farming.
Speakers included Carly Veitch a farm consultant from AgAsset who highlighted the importance of benchmarking as a reference point for farmers to compare their economic performance with other farm enterprises in the region.
It enabled farmers to identify overcapitalization, utilize spare capacity and look at enterprise mixes to optimize profits, she said.
Rural Bank regional manager Ian Herd spoke about the bank and the services it provides for farmers and ways they can access them through the local community bank branch.
Brant Jansen from Byfields addressed the topic of Single Touch Payroll.
The new reporting system introduced by the Australian Tax Office from July 1 last year involves businesses sending employee payroll and super information to the ATO from their electronic bookkeeping program each payday.
It means employers no longer have to provide employees with a payment summary at the end of the financial year.
Payments reported through STP are made available by the ATO for download through the myGov website.
Mr Jansen also discussed legitimate ways farmers can reduce tax liabilities including paying into superannuation, Farm Management Deposits and the use of various business structures.
A standout speaker was Kim Valenti from Valenti Lawyers who spoke about succession and estate planning.
He used case studies to illustrate the consequences of families not having a well considered succession plan.
Failure to do so could mean arguing a case before a supreme court judge at a cost of $250,000 or more and five to 10 years to settle, he said.
The Farmers Breakfast is jointly sponsored by York and Districts Community Bank, Byfields accountants and Rural Bank and held at the York Recreation and Convention.
The agribusiness students added further to their knowledge of the agricultural industry and agri-politics later in March when they attended the WA Farmers state conference in Perth.
Lindsay McNeill is the media officer for Central Regional TAFE School of Agribusiness.
