The Land Services Program — improve your business and landscape

The Land Services Program (LSP) offers a new approach to property planning and rural enterprise mentoring.

The LSP runs over two years or eight ‘quarters’ with an annual intake of participants.

A structured four quarter program repeats annually and is supported by regular training, mentoring and capacity building.

Participants will receive access to training and services estimated to have a total value of $16,000 over the course of the program. This includes a $10,000 training budget. Additionally, the potential longer-term benefits to individuals businesses are substantial.

Case officers and mentors

The LSP operates under a case officer approach, which pairs participants with a Local Land Services staff member who will provide support and guidance through the program. Case officers and participants are responsible for developing rapport and determining an appropriate level of support, contact and interaction.

Case officers are to assist in structuring the overall program for participants, and navigating issues related to training and program completion. In addition, a range of mentors are being identified to match the particular enterprise and landscapes of the participants.

Mentors may be utilised as part of the training budget to provide daily advice, one on one support, or to demonstrate enterprises and opportunities to participants.

Participants will receive up to $10,000 in the second year of the program. This is to support capacity building activities, engaging expertise and information systems that provide decision support which aligns with the goals and priorities of their business. This is identified during the property planning process.

This can include formalised courses, industry conferences, field days, decision support tool subscriptions and external consultants.

General themes within which funded activities should fit are land management, enterprise specific courses, business and finance, whole farm management, people management and succession planning.

Some examples of courses and events within these areas include:

A more comprehensive list of suggested courses can be provided by Local Land Services, however participants are invited to propose any activity they feel will be most relevant and beneficial.

All training and activities are subject to cost sharing and are funded utilising Western Local Land Services Small Grants funding protocols.

For more information:

Courtney Lallard, Broken Hill

Mobile: 0499 924 501, Email: courtney.lallard@lls.nsw.gov.au

Christine Plummer, Buronga

Mobile: 0408 241 200, Email: christine.plummer@lls.nsw.gov.au

Video case studies

We've created three short case study films with participants from the program who all agree its been valuable for their businesses and them personally.

• Humewood, Simon and Caroline Booth
• Barney's Lake, Jared Burke
• Bellevue, David Reese

For further information about the Program have a read of the following materials:

• plan on a page
• case study - James and Kimberley McClure
• case study - Dave and Tracey Hegarty
• mentor profile - Gus Whyte
• mentor profile - Glenn Humbert
• mentor profile - Geoff Peters
• mentor profile - Garry Hannigan