Profitable Farmer

AI is moving fast — incredibly fast — and whether we like it or not, the game has changed. 

In this week’s episode, I sit down with Sam Johnsson, CEO of Farm Owners Academy. Sam, along with Michaela, Greg, and the broader FOA team, has been doing outstanding work in this space, not just exploring what AI can do, but figuring out how we can use it practically to build better businesses and better outcomes for farm owners. 

We unpack what AI really means for agriculture and why I believe the opportunity in front of us is enormous. 

From using ChatGPT or Claude as a smarter research partner, through to analysing data, improving decision-making, building systems, automating repetitive work and even capturing 40 years of knowledge from inside a farmer’s head, the capability is extraordinary. 

But we also talk about the other side of it: security, accuracy, the risk of AI being “confidently wrong”, and why good judgement, trusted advisers and knowing what good looks like still matter enormously. 

Sam also shares a really useful framework for understanding where you are on the AI journey, and, more importantly, how to take the next step without feeling like you need to become a technology expert overnight. 

My encouragement is simple: don’t sit on the sidelines. 

Get curious. Have a play. Start small. Because this technology is going to touch almost every part of business and life, and I think those who learn to use it well will have an extraordinary advantage. 

I really enjoyed this conversation with Sam, and I hope it gives you the confidence and a few practical ideas to start putting AI to work in your business. 

Keep winning! 

Hutch & The Farm Owners Academy Team 

P.S. If this episode has you thinking it's time to get more out of AI in your farm business, Sam is running a 90-minute live workshop on 21 & 22 October. You’ll learn how to spot the work where AI can create genuine leverage, then set it up with the context, standards and guardrails it needs to do that work properly in your operation. See the workshop and register here.

There is a question every farming family should be able to answer with confidence:

How well is our farm business actually performing — and what is it truly capable of?

Not just whether there’s cash in the bank. Not whether we’ve had a good season. And not whether we’re doing things a bit better than they’ve always been done.

I mean really understanding the strength of the business model underneath it all.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been lucky enough to spend time on-farm with a number of our members, sitting around kitchen tables, driving around properties and getting deep into the numbers behind their businesses. And one exercise in particular has created some incredibly valuable conversations.

It’s about reverse engineering the potential of the farm.

In this episode, I want to take you through that same exercise, and I unpack some of the key numbers I use to stress test a farm business:

Return on assets managed

Net Profit as a percentage of income

Appropriate levels of gearing

Labour investment

Interest cover

I then use these to ask a much bigger question:

Given the assets you have access to today, what level of income and profit should your business be capable of producing?

Because for many farming families, the opportunity isn’t necessarily about buying the farm next door. It may be about getting far more from the farm you already have.

I uncover why scale should be measured in revenue, not hectares, and the three ways you can build it: through simplification, intensification and, only then, expansion.

I also consider the idea of getting a balance between business model, scale and gearing — and why getting those three things working together can completely change the financial strength of your farming business.

This isn’t about chasing numbers for the sake of numbers. And it certainly isn’t about suggesting there’s one perfect enterprise or one perfect way to farm.

It’s about knowing what good looks like.

It’s about giving yourself and your family a clear set of targets, understanding the gap between where you are today and where the business could be, and then asking better questions about how you close that gap.

So grab a pen and a piece of paper for this one.

Work through the numbers for your own farm as we go, challenge a few assumptions, and perhaps uncover some of the latent income and profit sitting inside the business you already have - and if you'd like to go a bit deeper with your numbers & analysis, head to our website and grab your free copy of "The Profitable Farming Playbook" which will help you track the key targets that lead to stronger decisions, better profit, and long-term success.

Because sometimes the greatest opportunity isn’t more land.

It’s a stronger business model on the land you’re already farming.

Keep winning!

Hutch & The FOA Team

 

P.S. Knowing your numbers gives you a much clearer picture of what your farm business is capable of. If you want to go deeper, you can access our CFO Program for just $97 using promotional code PODCFO97 at checkout (usually $197) or book a Complimentary Coaching Call with our team to talk through your business and where you can improve performance.

Pat Barrett has spent nearly twenty years at Walsh & Blair, and before that he was playing regional rugby for the Wagga Waratahs, learning lessons about mateship, discipline, and common goals that he still leans on today when he sits across the table from farming families trying to navigate succession.

In this episode, I sit down with Pat, director at Walsh & Blair and one of the most respected rural lawyers in the Riverina, to talk about what actually makes succession work. And what quietly wrecks it.

We started with rugby, and the idea that not knowing the rules can get you hurt. So often we throw the next generation into farming with no rules, no structure, and no shared understanding of what success even looks like. Pat's seen that play out again and again, and had some really practical thinking on how to fix it.

Here's what we got into:

What happens when everyone in a family business is carrying a different version of the common goal, and why that's the difference between touch footy on the beach and playing for real

The three stages of a proper transition: management, business, and land, and why trying to do all three at once is where things get messy and emotional

Why bringing your accountant, banker, consultant, and lawyer into the same room beats passing messages between them like a game of Chinese whispers

Why paying family members a market wage builds accountability instead of entitlement

Pat's a straight shooter, and what got me thinking was his point about timing. He reckons the older generation has a window early on, while it's still exciting and before any history's built up, to get things agreed on properly. His advice to the next generation was the mirror image of that. It might feel awkward going in, but as Pat says it's "a lot more awkward later on down the track" if you don't.

If you're the older generation holding on a bit too long, or the next generation wondering what you've actually agreed to, this one's worth your full attention.

👉 You can learn more about Pat and the team at Walsh & Blair at www.walshblair.com.au

A huge thanks to Pat for his time and his candour, and for the impact he and his firm have had on hundreds of farming families across the Riverina and beyond.

Here's to getting the agreements right, before you need them.

Hutch & The Farm Owners Academy Team

If a plan only lives in your head, no one else can help you make it happen. 

That's the line that sits at the heart of this conversation. Because so often on a family farm, there isn't one plan. There are two, or three, or four, each one living quietly inside a different family member's head, each one slightly different, and none of them written down anywhere everyone can see. 

In this episode, I'm joined by two of our senior FOA coaches, Elle Webb and Kerrie Smith. Both started, in their own words, at a zero out of ten when it came to having a clear, documented, common plan for their farm businesses. Both now run their businesses off a simple two-page, Clarity Action Plan that keeps the whole family and team pointed at the same goal. 

We explore: 

What life actually looks like without a shared plan: reactive decisions, disorganisation, and family members quietly filling the information gap with their own version of the story 

Why a BHAG (a big, hairy, audacious goal) needs to stretch 30, 50, even 80 years out, and how to break that down into 10-year, 3-year, and 1-year goals without getting stuck on the how 

What a Brick List is (anything left undone, sitting in your head and weighing you down) and why simply writing it down and prioritising it is one of the fastest ways to free up headspace and get moving again 

When and how to bring your employed team into the annual, quarterly, and weekly planning rhythm, and why that alignment is what turns individual effort into real momentum 

What it means to have a coach as your "unreasonable friend," asking the questions you can't ask yourself or your own family, and why that discomfort is so often where the growth happens 

It took Elle around 35 to 40 versions of her plan over three years before it finally clicked. And what came through clearly for both of them is that the ten-year goal was never just about a bigger business. It was about a business that could fund real holidays, hand genuine ownership to their kids, and give the whole family the freedom to build the life they actually wanted, not just the one the farm demanded of them. 

If you'd like a copy of our Clarity Action Plan template or the five questions every strategic plan needs to answer, email us at support@farmownersacademy.com and we'll send it straight through. 

Elle and Kerrie, thank you both for your honesty about where you started and for the wisdom and care you bring to our members every single day. You make an extraordinary team. 

Till next time,  

Jeremy Hutchings & the Farm Owners Academy Team

What if the best investment you could make on your farm costs nothing extra to feed, never needs a day off, and compounds in value every single year? 

That's the case Dr Mark Ferguson has been making for 30 years. And the numbers back him up. 

Mark is a sheep geneticist turned ag tech founder who grew up on a family farm in the Victorian Mallee. After completing his PhD in Merino genetics, he founded neXtgen Agri to help sheep and beef producers across Australia and New Zealand breed better and build more profitable enterprises. He also heads up Genesmith, an AI-powered sheep facial recognition platform and hosts the Head Shepherd podcast. 

In this episode, we reconnect to talk genetics, entrepreneurship and what it really takes to build a business that compounds in value over time. 

We explore: 

The research behind the modern Merino, how fat and muscle selection transformed lamb survival and what that means for your flock today 

How to make genuinely objective breeding decisions and break free from the emotional, vision-driven choices that quietly hold most operations back 

The kitchen table origins of neXtgen Agri, what a trip to Stanford University sparked, and the lessons Ferg learned building a 19-person trans-Tasman business 

Genesmith: the AI-powered facial recognition platform trying to solve one of the sheep industry's oldest problems, dam-lamb matching at commercial scale, and what it needs to get there 

How to attract and retain great people in ag, give them the freedom to grow and build a team that performs beyond any individual 

To connect with Dr Mark Ferguson, visit www.nextgenagri.com or email mark@nextgenagri.com. The Genetic Plan and other resources are available at thehub.nextgenagri.com. If you are interested in Genesmith, whether as a supporter, partner or someone who wants to help drive the project forward, get in touch via the details above. And if you haven't already, search Head Shepherd wherever you listen to podcasts. 

Ferg, thanks for your time, your openness and your complete dedication to helping farming families get more from their genetics. The industry is better for it. 

It was great to re-connect again.