The Australian Farm Forestry Financial Model

The Australian Farm Forestry Financial Model (AFFFM) has been developed as a tool for the financial appraisal of farm forestry investments. It is a whole-farm financial model developed in modules using Visual Basic as the programming language, and provides estimates of key financial criteria including net present value, land expectation value and internal rate of return. It also provides details of the impacts of forestry options on cash flows and the business cash position. Included in the AFFFM are datasets for plantation establishment and maintenance costs, growth rates and potential timber products of a number of tree species, for three regions. This paper outlines the scope of the AFFFM including its structure, assumptions, input parameters and key variables. The paper also reports the process through which the model was validated through replication of previous studies, the development of case studies and testing by undergraduate students.