BOOM or BUST! An EPIC Collaboration | Is This The Future Of Farming? Collaborative Farming 

Congratulations on the purchase Henry

Well done Henry on adopting a new approach to both sourcing equipment and sharing the burden with a like minded property owner. From a distance it looks like a very sensible arrangement and given you were able to make a joint decision on a major purchase you appear to share the values & objectives necessary for a happy business future. A modern solution to an old problem.

Well done Henry, always good to build up the business :) Equipment/labour sharing, share farming and other different agreements have been in place for a long time, although like you said with farms getting bigger it doesn't seem to happen as much these days. Just make sure you have everything in writing, handshake deals don't mean anything in this day and age.

It is great that you have looked at transitioning from what seems to be pure cash accounting to accrual accounting using management (product costing and overhead) models. As a former FCPA and CFO of a multi $B company I can surely recognise the benefits of accurately costing production inputs and outputs on a farm. You might like to look at plant as fixed (insurance, financing, rego and depreciation costs) and the variable costs (fuel, tyres, repairs and maintenance, and driver labour (including on-costs {holiday and sick pay, superannuation, Workcover, etc) and calculate both a fixed and operating cost per machine hour {based on expected hours life of the machine}. These values will give you a much better idea of overall productivity and return on investment. Some of your fixed and variable costs will be non-cash (depreciation, and other amortisation of ownership costs) SO you also need to do cash flow forecasts also to ensure you are liquid, or have access to funding. Best of fortune to you and your partner in your new model of business Regards Robbey

Nice looking semi and trailer Henry

Congrats on the purchase, looks a beaut.

Hi Henry have a talk to John Gladigau from Alawoona in the Mallee, he is involved in collaborative farming, ie number of farm owners have come together for seeding and crop management including use of machinery etc, I think he did a Churchill Fellowship on the subject. He also has a youtube channel

Lock Valley Farms, This is fantastic! I subscribed right away!

Well we all cant say dont do it you have done it .All the best and as it is said time will tell maybe a follow up in 2 seasons as to how it has played out.

Good thinking about your business strategy young man. Good luck.

Its the problem with expensive equipment, it doesn't make you money while its sitting in the shed. But with farming and weather windows at seeding and harvest time, you need it to run all day, but only for a couple of days. The issue with shared equipment is who gets priority, but I suppose lots of farms have been relying on contract harvesting for a long time. But if you have a sprayer and he has dozer or something similar, it saves on doubling up on equipment that doesn't get a lot of use and you can share the depreciation.

Awesome mate, good luck with it all. I’d recommend a 3rd party (umpire) like a consultant or something that write up agreements and stuff so it’s all black and white and there’s no dramas. Bloody cool you can get this happening though 🤘

Good looking truck.

Good stuff best of luck👍 Exited to see it come into motion

Similar to the Bulla Burra collaboration. That always seemed an interesting business idea

Sounds interesting thats for sure. Make makes sense at the same time

new gear is always fun. 😄

As others have commented mate, it’s important to have your new partnership drawn up legally, no matter how well you know someone, a handshake means nothing if something goes wrong .

Trailer look familiar, I'm guessing they were last pulled by a blue Volvo. All the best as you go forward.

Soooooo many zerks !!!!

lot of pollution in the sky

Awesome stuff, love the truck. Thanks for your work and vid Henry. Stay safe. The Ol Fella Greg.🤎ps And I fully understand where you are coming from. Congrats.

Poor old Benz, looks a bit disappointed parked out there in the wilderness.

Great video Henry

Nice Rig. Well done.Looks like it has been very well looked after. Do you plan on doing just your own freight or run it full time on other work?

It's awesome to hear Henry we done. Your keeping g your life together with your mate. Farmingives on

Sharp looking rig, Henry. As a retired long haul driver, I am quite excited for the future of your latest acquisition. The whole business model, and equipment sharing idea makes a lot of sense. I’m liking the 600 Cummins. My last truck (1998 Sterling) had the 475 Cummins ISX engine. As soon as the warranty was up, I had the tech turn it up to 550. Everyone told me it was a mistake. My fuel consumption dropped by just under 10%. Shut the nay sayers up right quick, that did.

Hey mate looks awesome. We’ve do a similar thing all the time. We have a cane farm and the harvesting equipment is shared around 4 of us. We share the planting equipment with another farmer as well. Like a comment above I would also recommend getting a lawyer to sort out all the fine print

Good luck with your new project well done mate

Great looking rig mate, will be a fantastic addition to any farm. We did a similar thing for our stock over here in NSW with our neighbor were getting charged an absolute arm and a leg for transport to Feedlots and from sales yards around the state. So we do our own freight now and have nearly paid for the truck in savings and odd jobs we have picked up from word of mouth.

Great Idea on the collab, will be interesting to see how it goes for you,it just makes sense cant see why every farmer needs there own one of this and that, if we can share and make it work that's great! So in harvest collaboration does that mean you guys are literally in the paddock together sharing machines and labour,who's paddocks get done first etc? Do you then share in harvest profits or only your own profits? Cant wait to hear more about how it all goes!

Growing up on a sheep and beef farm here in NZ dad and his brother farmed side by side and we had one tractor and all the gear that went with it between the two farms. Wasn't big gear but was enough for what we needed.

Best of luck on the expansion Henry, with your hard work ethics I know you'll do well

Good luck with the new venture1

Wouldn't a shared truck become an infuriating bottle neck at harvest time since ya both harvesting at the same time ? Plus maintaining the truck would fall in the hands of the most mechanically skilled person.that would get old fast.

Well done, Henry. A very honest and up front video. Thanks! Nice looking Star 🙂 A partnership sounds good in theory, I hope it works out in practice, especially during harvest when you'll both be fighting over it. It'll be interesting come harvest, to see your videos and how it works out. It your cropping programmes are similar, I guess there's not much chance to slightly stagger your harvest operations. I'm sure you two will find a way and have surely worked that out already, otherwise you wouldn't have gotten this far hey? 🙂 There's far too much seasonal gear sitting around for too many months in the off season and if you can work out a share arrangement with someone else, that's a better utilisation of gear. We look forward to your next harvest towards the end of the year. Keep up the great work!!

Sounds like a great idea, very similar to Bulla Burra up at Loxton. Cooperative farming seems to be the way of the future.

Good aspiration for you both, hope the winter and spring rains all work well for a ripper crop Henry, thanks for your honesty Melbourne Vic,

Well best of luck hope it works out for both partys involved .. you have set a plan so you both dont need the truck at the same time .but guess it work some how

Solid choice seems like a great solution.

Your lovely wife will enjoy wheeling the new truck