Alison McIntosh - Southern NSW

Alison is the principle of AJM Livestock Solutions, a business based in the Southern  Tablelands of NSW offering a range of services and consultancy to beef cattle producers and industry stakeholders. Alison has a firsthand active knowledge of the beef industry through involvement with her family beef cattle stud and commercial operation ‘Myanga’ at Crookwell.

Alison also has an in-depth knowledge and passion for better data recording on farm, leading to better records and more accurate and timely decision making. Alison spent 3 years as the primary technical and training officer with the Cattle National Livestock Identification System (NLIS) with the NSW Department of Primary Industries, so Alison has a good understanding about individual data recording and how this can streamline efficiencies in your operation.

Alison uses Stockbook with her own family cattle operation and can offer you support in ‘getting started’. Stockbook can provide an extensive array of powerful reports and data, Alison can navigate you through the program and show you how to retrieve the information you want for your business (everyone wants something a little different). Alison can also help you to link Stockbook with your NLIS reader and other scales or hardware you may be using, to create the most efficient system for your business. Alison can take you from ‘Where do I start?’ to ‘Being comfortable in navigating around Stockbook to enter and retrieve information that is going to improve the efficiency of your livestock business.

For more information visit www.ajmlivestocksolutions.com.au or email ajmlivestock@gmail.com or phone 0409 667 011
 

Susan Brant - Southern and South West QLD , Northern NSW

Susan Brant has a lifetime of experience on the land.  Having been involved with the cattle industry in both large and small enterprises.  Susan also has experience owning and operating small businesses in the areas of rural merchandise and agricultural software sales and training.  Susan initially joined Practical Systems in 2000. In the early years Susan was an agent and trainer for Practical Systems, winning national dealer of the year two years running in 2001 and 2002.  Susan has trained and assisted many businesses, both rural and commercial to use Cash Book Plus to its full capacity and has been using Cash Book Plus for the past 11 years.  Recently Susan had the opportunity to renew her association with Practical Systems.   Susan can deliver training from beginner to advanced including budgeting.    She will travel for groups of up to 8 or will deliver one on one training.
Her training company is Success in Training.  For more information go to www.successintraining.com.au  or email susan.brant@bigpond.com  Phone 0428855139

Brett Hills - SE South Australia / SW Victoria

Brett Hills has been using Practical Systems software for 10 years and a Territory consultant since 2006. Brett, who is a qualified Chartered Accountant, took over the role when he returned to the family farm and additionally set up his own business, Rural Succession Services. Based near Mt Gambier on “Summer Hill” a 1500 acre sheep and cattle property Brett uses Cashbook Plus!, Farmbook and Stockbook to run his own farm. He travels between Adelaide and Melbourne to provide training, sales and support and specialises in Cashbook Plus! set up and training.

For more information visit www.ruralsucessionservices.com

 Simon Daley - Central Queensland

Simon Daley and his wife Miriam live on a cattle property running a commercial cross bred breeding herd, west of Longreach, Queensland. They send steers and heifers 900km to their property near Wandoan where they fatten the herd for the heavy feeder market.

Since 2006 Simon and Miriam have used Stockbook to record the herd’s performance from breeding performance to weight gain. ‘We manage the Wandoan property through Stockbook, it enables us to make decisions from Longreach with a predicted weight performance of steers and heifers. I can book trucks, feedlots and generally organise the best price before the commencement of mustering.’ Simon said.

Since 2000 Simon and Miriam have also been using the Practical Systems’ program Cashbook Plus!. ‘This program impressed us as it is agriculture friendly but also meets our needs for the various enterprises that we have.’
 

For more information contact 0428 130 393 or lamancha@skymesh.com.au

 Suzanne Lockwood - Central and Eastern Victoria

Suzanne Lockwood of Lockington Business Services is a Practical Systems agent providing software consulting and training services to clients in central and eastern Victoria.

Lockington Business Services assists clients with setting up systems to correctly reflect their business needs, aiming to optimise the setup to cater for all management and compliance reporting requirements with ongoing support available to ensure those systems are maintained.

Training is aimed at the gaps in skills and knowledge, always pitched at an appropriate level and conducted in a friendly and supportive manner. Suzanne’s approach is to foster independence and empower business owners to take control of their records and use their software as an effective business tool.

For more information contact Lockington Business Services
0409 338 213
lockington@dcsi.net.au

Harry Wilson - Western Australia

Harry Wilson is a Practical Systems agent based in WA primarily working with clients who use Stockbook for sheep. Harry has extensive experience in performance recording and the now surpassed software program WoolPak.
Harry provides training and support for most of the agricultural area in WA except the Esperance region unless sufficient starters. Harry provides a data service and validation for submission to Sheep Genetics, he is also able to assist with electronic tagging and recording etc.

For more information contact Harry on 08 9622 3838 or harry@westbreed.com.au 
 

Stevan and Kate Nikolic - Northern Queensland

Mount Garnet residents Stevan and Kate Nikolic found it so easy to use their new computer program they decided to start representing the company that produces it.

Stevan and Kate run a consultancy business while breeding Quarter Horses and Angus composite cattle. After purchasing Practical Systems individual animal management software Stockbook to run their own herd, the couple were so impressed with its usability they contact the company about becoming a Territory Consultant.

“We purchased Stockbook because we needed to be able to increase the performance and quality of our product.” Mr Nikolic said.

“We found the programs easy to use and they gave us the method of tracking and improving our business – Practical Systems really does improve the business of farming.

“The software is designed to be very user friendly so you don’t need a degree to work it. The methodology used in the software sets everything into an easy-to-use, logical sequence and really takes the guesswork out of our operation, allowing us to really see the performance of our herd.”

Steve and Kate are excited with the prospect of training existing Practical Systems users in northern Queensland as well as helping others improve their business with the software.

“I’m looking forward to being able to make a difference in our industry by bringing the software into the region I live and work in,” Kate said.

“Our clients are a diverse lot and we realise that we’ll need to be very flexible to meet their requirements.”

For more information contact 07 4097 9296 or steve.kate@bigpond.com