Machinery Investment Decisions workshop: Port Neill (22 Jan 2026)

Machinery investment is one of the biggest and riskiest financial decisions in a farm business. Get it right, and machinery boosts efficiency and profitability. Get it wrong, and it quietly erodes margins, cash flow, and resilience. This January, Eyre Peninsula growers will have the opportunity to step back from day-to-day operations and take a clear, practical look at whether their machinery investment is really working for their business.

AIR EP is pleased to host a five-session regional workshop series focused on making better machinery investment and replacement decisions. Delivered by Peter Newman (Planfarm) and Andy Bates (Bates Ag Consulting), these interactive sessions will provide growers with practical tools, benchmarks, and confidence to assess machinery costs and make informed decisions that suit their scale and system.

Each session runs for 3 hours (including a mid-session break) and is capped at 12 farm businesses to allow for discussion, activities, and peer learning.

What Will Be Covered?

Participants will work through:

• Farm business ratios, including machinery-to-income benchmarks

• Calculating your own average income and machinery ratio

• Machinery investment across different farm scales

• Replacement planning and schedules

• Funding options: hire purchase vs cash

• When (and why) it may make sense to break the rules

The sessions are practical, numbers-based, and designed to be directly applicable to individual farm businesses.

Why Attend?

• Understand whether your machinery spend matches your business performance

• Gain clarity around replacement timing and funding decisions

• Learn from experienced consultants and fellow growers

• Build confidence in machinery decisions before the next investment cycle

For further information, contact Naomi Scholz, eo@airep.com.au or 0428 540 670.

Cost:

Attendance is free, thanks to funding support from the GRDC RiskWi$e project. Up to 12 farm businesses can attend (multiple people from the same business welcome, please indicate who will be attending on the registration form). First in best dressed, and please let me know if you have registered but are unable to make it, so we can offer your spot to the waiting list.