VegBIZ – Vegetable Enterprise Decision Support Systems
The VegBiz project developed and delivered a financial decision support tool to the Australian vegetable industry. VegTool is a grower friendly cost of production calculator that generates figures about income, growing costs and gross margins for vegetable crops. Scenarios for different crops and management practices can be developed, saved, compared and interpreted. VegTool financial reports and program functions can assist growers’ decisions about crop production and management practices and provide users with opportunities to improve their financial understanding of growing costs and returns. The primary audience for VegTool is Australian levy paying vegetable growers and industry professionals who have contact with vegetable growers. Awareness of VegTool and its benefits were raised through media articles, field demonstrations, workshops, conference presentations, websites and publications. Training and support materials were developed for the delivery of information at industry and field events. VegTool information is available at several industry organization websites including the AusVeg, (Peak Industry Body of the Australian vegetable industry) website. Information and training activities were conducted in all Australian states. These were attended by growers, researchers, rural support workers, commercial service providers and industry development officers. The VegTool functions were demonstrated and interpretation of financial reports discussed. Several crop scenarios which compare different vegetable management practices were presented and the impact on operational costs and gross margins explored. These examples demonstrated how VegTool can be utilized for making crop and farm management decisions. VegTool CD’s were distributed at field events, by direct mail and downloads at the Ausveg website. The uptake of the program was most successful where there was direct contact with growers. A series of vegetable crop gross margin budgets were also developed aThe VegBiz project developed and delivered a financial decision support tool to the Australian vegetable industry. VegTool is a grower friendly cost of production calculator that generates figures about income, growing costs and gross margins for vegetable crops. Scenarios for different crops and management practices can be developed, saved, compared and interpreted. VegTool financial reports and program functions can assist growers’ decisions about crop production and management practices and provide users with opportunities to improve their financial understanding of growing costs and returns. The primary audience for VegTool is Australian levy paying vegetable growers and industry professionals who have contact with vegetable growers. Awareness of VegTool and its benefits were raised through media articles, field demonstrations, workshops, conference presentations, websites and publications. Training and support materials were developed for the delivery of information at industry and field events. VegTool information is available at several industry organization websites including the AusVeg, (Peak Industry Body of the Australian vegetable industry) website. Information and training activities were conducted in all Australian states. These were attended by growers, researchers, rural support workers, commercial service providers and industry development officers. The VegTool functions were demonstrated and interpretation of financial reports discussed. Several crop scenarios which compare different vegetable management practices were presented and the impact on operational costs and gross margins explored. These examples demonstrated how VegTool can be utilized for making crop and farm management decisions. VegTool CD’s were distributed at field events, by direct mail and downloads at the Ausveg website. The uptake of the program was most successful where there was direct contact with growers. A series of vegetable crop