Dynama+ Dynama

Step 6 Complete the Dynama worksheet

The Dynama worksheet automatically takes values from the Dynama+ AECalc, Prices, Huscosts and Assets worksheets and combines them with data about births, losses, sales and purchases to build a ten year sequence of livestock schedules.

A livestock schedule (Dynama HERD TABLE 7) provides a snapshot of the structure and productivity of a cattle herd for up to a decade.

Once the performance of the cattle business has been identified in the livestock schedule, the Dynama worksheet connects its cattle trading outcomes to cost, asset and loans input to project cash flow, net income, debt and net worth.

Data Tables 1 to 6 - Deaths, Calving and Prices

The first four data tables in the Dynama worksheet only require entries for the first year if values are expected to remain the same over time. Year one are normal data entry cells (black text). Years two to ten are automatically generated (red-brown text) and allow new entries to be over typed. These formulas copy the initial values to the second and subsequent years in each table but may be overridden with value entries if later years are expected to have different values to the first year.

Female death rates table from Dynama worksheet. The values entered for annual death rates are automatically copied to the remaining years of the program unless they are overwritten. The values shown for death rates are the same as those used in the Breedcow+ example file.

Male death rates from Dynama worksheet. This table shows the death rates for all males that are entered into Table 2 of the Dynama worksheet. Herd bull death rates are transferred to HERD TABLE 7. It must be remembered that stock that are purchased and sold in the same year will not have a death rate applied against the opening number as this class of stock is not “carried” for the entire year. Adjustment to sale prices or weights may have to be made if significant losses occur in purchased stock.

Weaning rates table from Dynama example file.

Re Data Table 3 – Weaning Rates: The weaning rate on "Cows mated 1 year" is based on the number of calves counted as weaned from "Heifers 1 year" as per the start of year description. Actual mating for those weaners may have been early in the current budget year, or in the previous budget year. Weaning rate for each age group of breeders is multiplied by eligible breeders in that group to determine "new calves" produced for the budget year.

Purchase prices shown in Table 4 of the Dynama worksheet should be entered so that they include (on a per head basis) all of the costs associated with purchasing the cattle unless such costs are not separable from the general property costs that will be entered later in the worksheet as part of fixed or overhead costs.

Data tables 5A and 6A are female and male sale prices that are taken directly from the Prices worksheet. Any desired changes to the values shown in these tables are best made in the Prices worksheet. Tables 5B and 6B (to the right of Tables 5A and 6A), are opening inventory values. Closing inventory values are taken off the opening values of the next year. Prices for “new calves” are to set sale prices only. “New calves” will have their closing values set off the opening values for heifer and steer weaners for the following year.

As the role of inventory values is to provide an estimate of the asset value of the overall herd, not just the sale cattle, inventory values can be altered if the sale prices are not an accurate representation of overall group values. These values are used to determine herd value and to calculate net income. To change an inventory value in Table 5B or 6B, override the formula with the desired value.

Inventory values of bulls almost certainly should be changed to reflect the paddock value of the total group of cattle, not just the sale value or purchase price. The inventory value for bulls should be somewhere between the cull price and the average purchase price.

Herd Table 7 - Herd Growth, Transactions and Carryovers

Table 7 is the livestock schedule that underpins the Dynama+ program. It takes the opening number for each class of cattle for the year, adds purchases, deducts sales, transfers spays out of the breeder groups then calculates deaths, new calves, and closing numbers.

Required entries to complete the livestock schedule for year one include:

• opening numbers for each class of livestock (at the beginning of year one)
• purchases
• spaying, and
• sales

The closing numbers from year one become the opening numbers for the next age group the following year. The year one closing numbers of new calves is divided between weaner heifers and steer weaners in the opening numbers of year two.

The number of new calves can be calculated either from the opening number of breeders plus purchases less females spayed or set aside and sales or from just the opening number of breeders.

New calves calculation option

The closing number of new calves equals calves produced by the breeder herd plus calves purchased minus calves sold. This calculation may be overridden with a numeric entry if actual numbers are being entered in the budget in place of the calculated figures.

The livestock schedule shown in Table 7 allows the female herd to be split up into two age groups for heifers (one and two year old heifers) and twelve age groups for older breeding females (years three to thirteen and then all females fourteen years and older in age).

The first year of Herd Table 7 of the Dynama worksheet from the example file.

The number entered for Cows sold or spayed after mating is calculated by adding up the total number of females sold and taking away the sales number for one year old heifers as they were not mated and taking away the number for ten year old cows as they were also culled and not mated.

If herd data is imported from a Breedcowp+ file, the number of cows sold after mating is automatically transferred to the first year of HERD TABLE 7.

Where the Import Autosales option is used to set up a sales and culling strategy across all years, the numbers of stock sold out of HERD TABLE 7 are based on the percentage values entered in the AutoSales table located to the far right of Table 7 in the Dynama worksheet. They are rounded to whole numbers.

Quite often when building a livestock schedule for a northern Australian breeding property, the numbers in each age group of male cattle and heifers on hand will be known but the age breakup for the breeding herd is unlikely to be accurately known. The best estimate of the split up of the breeding herd into age groups can be used as a starting point and varied later if necessary. Modelling the herd in Breedcow+ first and then transferring the values to Dynama+ - as has been done in the examples provided - will also provide an approximate breakup of the female herd into age groups that can then be adjusted where necessary.

Purchases in extensive northern Australian breeding herds will most commonly be bulls but other purchased livestock need to be identified and added to the relevant classes in Table 7 of the Dynama worksheet where necessary. They are entered in the purchases column of Table 7 in the year in which they are purchased.

Spaying can be surgical or it can mean keeping surplus cows separated from bulls. Cows shown as spayed or surplus in Table 7 will transfer out of their age groups into the spayed and surplus cow group. For all fourteen year old cows and all five year old bullocks, formulas are set to automatically sell 100 percent of the number on hand at the start of the year.

Deaths are calculated in Table 7 on the opening numbers plus purchases less spays and sales. Spayed cow deaths in Table 7 are based on the opening number shown plus new spays minus sales. This assumes that sales occur early in the year. If some deaths are expected before sales, these may be factored in as negative entries in the Purchases column (with purchase price set to zero). The use of this “dirty” approach to calculating deaths should be noted on the Memo and any printouts should be corrected by hand with Deaths written over the top of Purchases.

AutoSales and AutoSpay

Sales and spays can be made by manual entry or by formula. The formulas that set the rate of sales or spaying refer to an input block located at the far right of Table 7. In that input block the percentage of livestock sold from each class of cattle or the absolute number to be sold can be set. These inputs for sales and spays are known as AutoSales or AutoSpay values and are set to zero until they are changed.

Austosales and Autospay table located to the right of HERD TABLE 7

The AutoSales and AutoSpay feature of Dynama+ can be useful in setting herd targets identified in the herd modelling undertaken in the Breedcow+ program. The herd structure modelled in Breedcow+ can be transferred as a sales and spaying target to the AutoSales and AutoSpay input table. This facilitates the transition from the current herd structure to the desired herd structure within the livestock schedule of Table 7.

The balance of numbers across the years can be checked by looking at the overall numbers for adult equivalents, sales, new calves and purchases calculated for each year of the livestock schedule and shown at the bottom of Table 7 in the Dynama worksheet.

Whilst AutoSales will largely automatically transition a herd from the current structure to the AutoSales structure, the transition will occur sooner with some manual intervention in the first few years. A useful trick is to adjust breeder sales to achieve the required number of new calves as quickly as possible – since the new structure will all flow from this number of calves.

The number for new calves at the head of the Preferred Residual column in the AutoSales input block is the number generated in the Breedcow+ file used as the basis for the AutoSales transfer.

Entries for AutoSales can be either the percentage of opening number that is to be sold or the number to be kept from each group (the Preferred Residual). AutoSpay entries are the percent of opening numbers to be spayed.

If AutoSales entries are made in both columns of the AutoSales data input block, sales are calculated for both entries and the larger number displayed. This allows a minimum cull to occur in those years when opening numbers are less than the preferred residual.

For example if AutoSales entries are 5 percent and the number 500, and the opening number for the class of cattle is 600, sales are 100 (600-500) as the figure nominated for the AutoSales percent would only sell thirty cows (5 percent of 600) giving a residual of 570. If the opening number were only 400, sales will be 20 (5 percent), despite the opening number being less than the preferred residual.

AutoSales transfers from Breedcow+ combine sales before and after mating and females spayed to calculate the “desired residual” or the percentage “sale” of opening numbers for each female group. These are the numbers in the AutoSales table. In the livestock schedules for each year, sales and spays are again separated. Sales equal total disposals less spays. Overriding a spay number with another value will see sales change to maintain the same number of disposals. Overriding the sales entry will not alter the spay number. Sales calculated by AutoSales automatically reduce by the number entered in the spayed or surplus column.

The AutoSales formulas do not distinguish between sales before mating and sales after mating. If you ignore this distinction, the number of cows upon which bull requirements are calculated will be understated. To fix this, enter for each year the number of cows expected to be sold or spayed after mating. This is the first entry in the small block of data beneath the main part of Table 7. Failure to do this will affect only the calculation of bull requirements.

Weaning rates

The weaning rates used to calculate new calves (or, more precisely, new weaners) are applied by default to the number of breeders mated and kept. The correct entry for weaning rate therefore depends on whether empty cows have or have not been removed. A pregnancy rate of 80 percent and pregnancy survival to weaning of 90 percent would result in a 72 percent weaning if the empties stayed in the herd. If the empties were removed, the weaning rate would be 90 percent. Other combinations are possible, such as removal of some of the empties or the selective sale of PTIC (pregnancy tested in calf) breeders.

If changing the breeder sales strategy is going to alter the weaning percentage on cows mated and kept, then the weaning rate shown in Table 3 of the Dynama worksheet should be adjusted.

Managing bulls numbers

Bull purchases, the number of male weaners retained for BYO (breed your own) bulls and sales are determined in all years by unprotected allow override formulas.

If the number of new calves is calculated from cows on hand after purchases, sales and cows spayed, the bull requirements are for this year’s mating to produce this year’s calving . If the number of new calves is calculated from opening breeders only, the bull requirements calculated will be for this year’s mating to produce next year’s calves.

Bull purchase, sale and BYO numbers are determined by the percentage entries shown below Table 7 in the Dynama worksheet. Entries are for the bull/cow ratio (as a percent), minimum purchases (percent of bulls required), the retention of BYO bulls (percent of bulls required) and bull death rate (as a percent).

The minimum bull purchase percent and BYO retention percent are proportional to total bulls required. Start with the proportion expect to be replaced and then apportion it between purchases and BYO (home bred) bulls.

The numbers for cows spayed or sold after mating also shown beneath Table 7 in the Dynama worksheet is used to ensure a full count of cows mated and thus of bulls required. It refers to this year’s mating, whether that mating produces this year’s calves or next year’s. If cows are purchased as mated, a negative entry in the cows sold or spayed after mating input cell will ensure that bulls are not provided for those females, or simply override the formulas with your own calculation.

The bull/cow ratio is used to calculate the bull requirements for this year’s mating. A minimum rate of replacement of bulls is provided by the entry against minimum purchase percentage of bulls required. Retention of Breed-Your-Own (BYO) bulls is provided for by the entry against BYO retention percent bulls required.

The bull purchases will be calculated as the greater of two numbers – the number required to provide the required number of bulls (1) or the minimum purchase number (2).

Sample data from below Table 7 of the Dynama worksheet

The formulas for BYO retentions, purchases and sales may be overridden with numeric entries. The bull sales formula ensures that the number required is always there. Indeed, if the purchases formula has been overridden and enough bulls are not provided, the sales formula will compensate by showing negative sales. To fix the problem it is necessary to increase purchases, retain more BYO bulls, reduce the bull/cow ratio or override the sales formula.

Allow override formulas reference the previous year’s values for bull requirements and automatically transfer them from year two to through to year ten.

BYO (breed your own) bulls are treated as part of the steer group until transfer into the breeding bull herd at age two years (when last year’s closing number of one year olds becomes this year’s opening number of two year olds).

Identifying the opening number of cows

The number shown as the number of cows mated and kept to calve will be either the opening breeder number (if calculating new calves on that basis) or the opening number of breeders plus purchases less sales and females spayed. If the latter number is being used, and some of these sales have occurred after calving, the calculated number will be wrong and should be overridden with the correct number. This number affects only the display of weaning rate on cows kept.

The cell for total cows mated will display a value only if the number of new calves is calculated on opening breeders plus purchases less sales and females spayed. The total number of cows is calculated as the number of cows mated and kept to calve plus the number of cows sold or spayed after mating (which can include cows sold after calving).

If the number of new calves is calculated on the opening breeder numbers, the value for total cows mated will display a message “Enter Total”. The value for weaning rate on all cows mated will display “Needs Total” if there is no numeric entry for the number of total cows mated.

The data blocks at the bottom of Table 7 of the Dynama worksheet has an input cell against the heading closing new calves’ percent female, with a default of 50 percent. This is required as new calves can be bought and sold potentially leading to an imbalance in the male to female closing inventory if purchases or sales were for a greater proportion of heifers or steers.

Steer opening numbers

The opening number of two year old steers shown in Table 7 of the Dynama worksheet will be the closing number of one year olds, less the number required for BYO bulls (which changes as breeder numbers change in response to altered sale decisions).

The link between bull requirements, female sales and the number of two year old steers available for sale means that setting sales of two year old steers to 100 percent by a numeric entry could be thrown out by any subsequent change to female sales. To avoid this happening, use the AutoSales feature if possible. Otherwise, make all female sales entries first or at least recheck two year old steer sales after any change to female sales.

Beneath Table 7 in the Dynama worksheet is the summary of adult equivalents, livestock sales, purchases, new calves and deaths for each period of the livestock schedule. The steady state herd modelled in Breedcow+ earlier in this manual has been used in the Dynama+ program as a starting point to building a long term budget. Some fluctuation in numbers occurs due to the use of the Autosales table adjusting sales over time.

Summary table from Herd Table 7 of the Dynamaplus worksheet example file

Costs Table 8A - Variable and Fixed Costs

The Dynama+ program separates costs into variable and fixed costs, livestock purchases (other than cattle), family living or drawings, taxation, and capital purchases. Table 8A of the Dynama worksheet details the fixed and variable costs.

Most of the detail of the variable costs incurred by the herd are collected in the Huscosts worksheet and are summarised for “kept” cattle in the first part of Table 8A of the Dynama worksheet and for sale cattle in Table 8B of the Dynama worksheet. If the variable costs incurred by any class of cattle change for all years, it is better to make the change in the Huscosts sheet.

Variable costs table from the Dynama worksheet

Allow override formulas copy year one values into year two etc. These can be overridden by value entries if changes are required for later years.

Fixed costs table from the Dynama worksheet

Provision is made in tables eight and nine of the Dynama worksheet to separately record GST paid and received. GST should therefore not be included when detailing outlays and receipts. Provision is made also to record the net GST payment to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

Family expenses and taxation (drawings), capital expenditure or recoupment, capital gifts, and depreciation are entered at Table 9. Interest and loan repayments are entered at Table 10 of the Dynama worksheet. Please ensure that these expenditures are not recorded in Table 8 of the Dynama worksheet.

Income Table 9 - Income, Debt and Net Worth

Table 9 of the Dynama worksheet contains separate sections to enter information concerning income, livestock purchases other than cattle, opening and closing values of livestock, capital transfers, family drawings, taxation, and capital purchases.

Ensure that the different types of transactions are recorded in the correct sections of the table.

Table 9 calculates cash flow for debt service (used in Table 10), net income, total debt (drawn from Table 10) and net worth.

Data should be entered for any other stock sales, net wool sales and sundry income generated by the business if these sources of income will be used to meet the expenses identified in the budget.

The opening value of cattle used in livestock valuations is calculated from entries made in Tables 5, 6 and 7. The opening value of sheep can be entered if sheep are part of the assets of interest. The opening value of other stock will usually mean horses. In its default loading, this screen will display other stock alongside the heading of Closing value of ... This closing value should be the number of other stock on hand multiplied by a realistic market value net of selling expenses.

Capital transfers in and out should show capital transfers between business entities. Such transfers will affect the calculation of cash flow and net worth but will not directly affect the calculation of net income.

Drawings are generally entered as an estimate of the living costs of the family owning the beef business. Wages and salaries paid by the business to family members should be entered as wages paid under the category of fixed costs.

The opening value of land, plant and improvements is used in calculating the total assets and net worth of the business. The closing value of land, plant and improvements equals opening value plus capital purchases, less capital sales, less depreciation plus or minus any asset revaluation that is made.

A depreciation estimate is entered for year one and is copied to later years by allow override formulas. For management purposes, base estimates of depreciation on a full listing of items, depreciated at realistic rates.

Extract of Table 9 Dynama worksheet

In the return on capital calculation the amount of interest paid is added back into net income so it represents a return on the whole capital, not just the equity capital and the allowance for owners labour and management is deducted so that “return on capital” is a return on just capital, not capital with some unpaid labour thrown in.

Operators allowance

Operating a beef business requires considerable amount of labour and management skills. The labour and management supplied by the owner is identified separately here as a fixed cost, even though it is often unpaid or underpaid.

Our definition of an operators allowance is that it is the value of the owners labour and management. It can be sometimes (but not always) estimated by reference to what professional farm managers / overseers are paid to manage a similar sized businesses.

It is generally not equal to the irregular wages paid to or drawings made by the owners. If some wages have been paid to the owners in the farm accounts and they are already included in the calculation of fixed costs and are included in the calculation of net cash flow in Dynama+.

Depreciation

Depreciation is a form of overhead or fixed cost that allows for the use / fall in value of assets that have a life of more than one production period. It is an allowance deducted from gross revenue each year so that all of the costs of producing an output in that year are set against all of the revenues produced in that year. Depreciation is not a cash cost.

The plant and machinery register that contains all of the plant and equipment owned by the beef business that is necessary to operate the business can be used to estimate the depreciation cost for a profit budget.

Depreciation of assets can be estimated by valuing them at either current market value or expected replacement value, identifying their salvage value in constant dollar terms and then dividing by the number of years until replacement. The formula used here uses replacement cost as its basis and can be written as: (Replacement cost – salvage value) divided by the remaining life in years for each piece of plant and equipment.

Leased plant and equipment is not included in the register as such items are not strictly a realisable asset of the business. Any payments in the farm records associated with leased plant are identified as a return to the lenders of capital accessed by the owners of the business to operate the business and will show up in the cash flow.

Lease payments are deducted from operating profit along with the other returns to lenders capital to calculate net profit.

The second last block of Table 9 of the Dynama worksheet shows debt and interest (sourced from Table 10), total assets, net worth, cash flow and net income.

Loans Tables 10

Loan Table 10(a) Term Loan Specifications

This table calculates a loan repayment based on the opening balance of term loans, payments per year, the amount of each payment, and the nominal interest.

Term loan table 10(a) Term loan specifications

Table 10(a) of the Dynama worksheet is for loans with regular repayments and interest paid in arrears. For loans on which interest is paid in advance see the notes later in this section.

The starting date for existing loans will be the start of the budget period. This default is generated by allow override formulas which refer to the month-year entry at the very start of the AECalc worksheet. These month-year displays should be overridden only for new loans taking effect after the budget starting date.

For existing loans, the opening balance is the amount outstanding at the start of the budget period. For new loans the opening balance is the amount of the loan including any establishment fees or charges that are incorporated in the opening loan balance.

The number of payments per year should be entered as being at least one. The value 0 it will be treated as 1. The amount of each payment can be either calculated or retrieved from business records. The value to be entered in the column headed nominal interest is the expected average rate of interest charged by the bank.

The repayments, interest paid and balances of up to six separate term loans can be followed for each year over ten years.

Table 10(b) Projections

Table 10(b) of the Dynama worksheet restates the opening balances and interest rates, calculates total payments for the year from Table 10(a) and then works out the interest component and calculates closing balances. These calculations are then carried on for the whole ten years of the budget. The example below shows that in the next year the business will reduce the loan from $250,000 to $230,981 and pay $15,040 in interest. These calculations are repeated for each year of life of the loan.

Extract from example file of term loan projections

All data in Table 10(b) of the Dynama worksheet is generated by formulas, though the values for payments this year and interest rate are calculated by allow override formulas. Interest rates can be changed during the budget period, or repayments reduced or increased.

The value for the interest rate in the first year of Table 10(b) is copied by an allow override formula linked to Table 10(a). For the second year of Table 10(b), the source is year one of Table 10(b). In the third year the source is year two etc. Thus an interest rate override will flow through to all later years. Conversely, changes made to the value allocated to payments this year does not flow through to later years.

For new loans, the formula determines how many payments will be made between the starting date of the loan and the end of the year and uses that to calculate the value for payments that year. Interest is calculated only at the scheduled repayment dates, so interest shown is the amount actually paid, not the amount that would be accrued if interest was calculated daily.

In the final year of a loan, only the opening balance is repaid, split into the normal number of payments. If four payments are scheduled and the opening balance of the final year is $1,200, Table 10(b) will show total payments of only $1,200 for that year. It is possible to tidy up the residual value of a loan by increasing the last year payment slightly (manually) to cover interest until a zero closing balance displays.

Table 10(c) working accounts

Where such accounts are held by the business, opening balances are required for the overdraft and for Term Deposits. These balances may of course be zero. Interest rates also are required.

The overdraft requires the opening balance to be negative if the account is overdrawn or positive if the account is in surplus.

The overdraft account receives deposits from the cash flow/debt service/new loans combination or funds the shortfalls from that combination. A shortfall shows as a negative adjustment which increases the overdraft.

The term loans and working accounts sections of Table 10 of the Dynama worksheet are interactive. If a term loan repayment is reduced by $10,000, this will improve the balance of the overdraft account by $10,000. This interaction may be used to test rescheduling options for debt.

Interest calculated on working accounts of Table 10 is only approximate, being based on the average of the opening and closing balances. Interest is charged on debit accounts but not credited to debit accounts in credit.

Working accounts and term deposits schedule

Paying interest in advance in Dynama+

Interest and loan repayment calculations in Dynama+ are based on all interest payments being calculated and paid as interest in arrears. For example, if $100,000 is borrowed with interest only payments once per year, the first payment would fall due one year after the loan was taken out and would be 10 percent of $100,000.

With interest paid in advance, such as with a bank bill, the nominal borrowing may be $100,000 at 10 percent, but the 10 percent would come out at the start of the loan. Thus $100,000 is received, but $10,000 goes straight back as interest.

The calculations in Dynama+ are not designed to handle this type of interest calculation; however some makeshift adaptations are possible.

For an existing interest-in-advance loan with annual payments of interest only, enter the opening balance and the interest rate, e.g. $100,000 at 10 percent and one payment per year of $10,000.

Opening and closing balances will remain at $100,000, and interest payments of $10,000 per year will be shown for all years.

For a new interest-in-advance loan with annual payments of interest only, enter the loan as a new loan in Table 10 (a) of the Dynama worksheet by entering a date later than the start of the budget, and entering a starting balance in the usual manner. For this example set nominal Interest at 10 percent (anything other than zero will do, but 10 percent may look best), set payments per year to 2 (or more), and leave the Amt Each Payment at zero.

Then in part (b) of the Dynama worksheet Table 10 enter the actual amounts of payments this year to override the allow override formulas in that column. The amount you enter will be the amount you have calculated as being due ($10,000).

This will show initially as going part towards interest and part to principal reduction. Override the interest rate in year one, increasing it until the whole $10,000 is shown as interest. In the example, this requires an interest rate entry of 20 percent.

For year two and later, the interest rate now shows as 20 percent (copying from year 1). Override this value with 10 percent, and this loan will display for years 2 to 10 the same as Term loan 1. For a new interest-in-advance loan with payments of interest and principal, enter the loan as follows:

Assuming annual principal reductions of $10,000, in year 1 of the Dynama worksheet Table 10(b) or the Monthcfl worksheet Table 7, and interest of $10,000, enter $20,000 for Payments This Year.

To make the payment display properly in year 1, increase Interest Rate (in this example to 20 percent) until Interest Amount shows as $10,000. It will be seen that the other $10,000 has gone to reducing the principal balance to $90,000.

In year 2, payments will be $9,000 for interest and $10,000 for principal, totalling $19,000 Payments This Year. Again, to make this display properly, adjust Interest Rate until the Interest Amount is exactly $9,000. In the example this is achieved at an Interest Rate of 10.28 percent (actually 10.278 percent).

Note that the entries made under Interest Rate are a means to an end – mainly getting the correct display of interest amount - and differ markedly from the original 10 percent because of the totally different basis and time scale upon which interest is being calculated.

Compile reports and review results

Unlike the Breedcow+ program, where the number of most interest was the gross margin, the Dynama+ program produces a large range of indices and outputs that can be used to investigate the future performance of a beef business in both a physical and financial sense.

The livestock schedule contained within Table 7 of the Dynama worksheet indicates the expected future performance of every class of cattle to be run by the property. The financial information entered into the worksheets will combine with the physical performance of the herd schedule to indicate the viability of the business and its capacity to service debt over time.

The Dynama+ program allows the careful consideration of the impact of a sudden financial shock like the loss of an important market or an extreme weather event and can quickly plot the capacity of the business to recover from the shock.

Conversely, improvement strategies that need time and resources to implement can also be planned out in a detailed way to consider any impacts on the physical and financial performance of the business over time.

The important task in compiling budgets within Dynama+ is to continue to check the values entered within the various worksheets against those that are known for the business being analysed. It is also important to include in the relatively long term budgets produced by Dynama+ consideration of the impact of the normal variation in markets and weather expected to be encountered by the business.

For example, if two significant droughts have been encountered in the last decade, the costs and loss of animal performance associated with such events need to be accounted for in a budgeting process that looks forward a decade. Likewise, the potential impact of the fluctuation in prices received for sale stock over recent decades can to be tested in the budget by substituting a range of sale prices (high, medium and low) in the Prices worksheet. Even though low prices are unlikely to be encountered for a full decade, it is possible to consider the capacity of the business to survive and meet its commitments in the short to medium term if a sudden fall were to occur.

A snapshot of the ten year Dynama+ model. Trends over time in grazing pressure applied, the balance of working accounts, debt and net worth for the business can be followed.