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Farm business advice and planning

RMCG provides whole of business advice to farm clients.

Our clients range from family farms and start-up farms, through to large corporate agriculture businesses and food processing businesses.

We provide advice on production systems, increasing productivity, strategic and operational planning, succession planning and financial analysis.

Our financial analysis is applied to a vast range of enterprises and crops. We work closely with business owners, banks, accountants, lawyers, insurers or other parties who need accurate financial assessments. Our robust analysis can help to understand specific management issues and make decisions required to improve business profit. We also use these skills to provide loss assessments and expert witness reports in legal disputes.

One of the big challenges for many farm businesses is that of staffing. We regularly help clients with staff recruitment and staff engagement, and we help managers to develop strong and committed teams.

Our consultants are motivated by seeing clients improve performance and reach their business goals. Our approach is evidence-based decision-making followed by measuring performance to manage it, tailored to the specific needs of our clients.

Team

Donna Lucas

Donna Lucas

Principal

B.App.Sci. (Hons)

Donna is an agricultural consultant with experience in business management, research and extension. She is adaptable with an ability to contribute to projects at a strategic level.
Donna has specialist knowledge in workforce development and planning, resource recovery, carbon farming, greenhouse gas/carbon accounting and project evaluation. Her strengths include driving execution, building connections and problem solving.

Daryl Poole

Daryl Poole

Principal

B.Ag.Sci. (Hons), CPAg., GAICD

Daryl has over 20 years of experience is in the areas of agribusiness and farm management, particularly the dairy industry.   He has a diploma in Human Resource Management (Dairy) and can assist farming businesses with their employment practices to ensure their workforce is both effective and compliant.  Daryl also has an in depth understanding of water policy and what it means at the farm level which allows him to assist irrigation businesses develop their water risk management strategies.   Daryl has both facilitator and strategic planning experience and can assist farming businesses and organisations to achieve their goals.

Dan Armstrong

Dan Armstrong

Senior Consultant

B.Ag.Sci. (Hons), M.Ag.Sci. (Economics)

Dan has 25 years’ experience working in agricultural industries and previously ran his own consulting business specialising in farm business management for 11 years.  His multi-disciplinary skills, strong advisory experience and broad contacts in the agricultural industries add strengths to RMCG’s work in the agriculture sector.

 

James Beveridge

James Beveridge

Senior Consultant

B.Mgt. (Farm Business)

James is a specialist rural consultant with extensive experience across a wide range of agribusiness sectors. He has worked with both large and small-scale irrigation enterprises (including cotton), dryland cropping, grazing operations, and horticulture, covering vegetables, sugarcane, permanent tree crops, and hydroponics. His experience also includes intensive animal industries such as feedlots (beef & sheep), piggeries, and poultry, along with post-farm gate businesses like sugar mills, cotton gins, and grain/feed processing.

Lauren Jones

Lauren Jones

Consultant

B.Bus.

Lauren is a highly capable consultant with strong attention to detail and excellent communication and organisational skills. She has a Bachelor of Business (Accounting) with a major in Agribusiness, and wants to utilise her skills and experience to help environmental and agricultural businesses grow.

 

Gurtej Sidhu

Gurtej Sidhu

Consultant

B.Ag.Sci., M.Ag.Res.Eco.

Gurtej is a consultant with a background in agronomy, farm operations and farm business management. He has a deep understanding of the complexities of the agriculture industry and the unique challenges that farmers face. He is interested in agribusiness and risk management, cost-benefit analysis and water management.