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Anna Bennett (accountant) has many clients who she has helped to successfully navigate the path to farm ownership. If farm ownership is your dream watch her and Dave Swney (farmer and SMASH committee member) to learn practical strategies to help you to achieve your goal. This session is also for people at the other end of their career who want to investigate effective strategies for exiting their farm business.

Anna and Dave talked about:
• Changes in the industry and how they have affected the path into farm ownership.
• The key financial indicators you should focus on.
• The characteristics of people who successfully buy farms.
• How to calculate the equity you will need to buy a farm.
• Borrowing sources.
• Case study examples of the different methods farmers have used recently to purchase farms.

Anna is a partner at CooperAitken, Matamata. She first became interested in accounting when she saw how vital it was to business success, and it’s her focus on helping business owners achieve great things that’s helped her build long-term relationships with her clients. Particularly meaningful are situations where she helps with family succession, enabling the next generation to succeed in their own right while the older generation is looked after and sees their children succeed.

Dave farms near Te Awamutu on 124 hectares, milking 410 Kiwicross cows. He, and his wife Alice Trevelyan, own the farm in an equity partnership with Dave’s parents.

Watch on YouTube