How do we keep the younger generation in the ag industry?
Over the last couple of years, the Farm Owners Academy (FOA) has been selling out its Top Producers Program and after attending the two-day event recently, it was easy to see why.
FOA is well-known throughout the agricultural industry as a leading farm business education and coaching provider, helping farmers create more profit, control, and freedom in their business and lifestyle. Essentially, it’s about building a business that works for you and it is crucial to understand the power of scale, focusing on productivity and managing your finances effectively.
Greg Johnsson, Jeremy Hutchings and the team did an incredible job presenting and guiding a packed auditorium to the opportunities that await motivated producers who are looking to scale up both financially and mentally when it comes to running their farm business.
It was no surprise that personal mindset and growth were key themes.
Over the last 40 years, FOA has set out to understand what it takes to be in the top 20 per cent of farming. After I completed the workshop, I definitely felt an enormous shift in perspective and direction, leaving with a full notebook and new like-minded friends.
It was great to see a variety of ages and leadership structures, with farming families being the most popular, and interestingly, not always parents and children together, although it’s highly recommended all decision-makers attend the event to learn.
Two brothers in their 20s were on my table at one point who had big plans for the future and were backed by forward-thinking parents. It got me thinking just how lucky they were to be not only involved in an innovative succession plan but also to have the opportunity to learn a bit about what it takes to be the best of the best in agriculture.
Speaking with Greg afterwards, we got talking about our young producers and I was keen to hear his thoughts on the biggest foreseeable threats against them. This is what he said:
- Access to capital to obtain the asset and their ability to build and retain enough wealth ownership.
- Family-owned farms are struggling to give young people a go and help retain the workforce because they don’t have the cash flow to pay wages and end up doing all the work themselves.
- Corporate farms are well positioned because they don’t work on-farm and, therefore, must employ people, and so can provide jobs.
He believes the employment of young people is the keystone in retaining young people in agriculture. I could not agree more. For all the allurement the ag industry offers, what’s the point if we can’t offer enough job opportunities or pathways?
If you find yourself sitting back Friday night after a week of work, and you’re thinking about skill shortage and labour scarcity, I challenge you to ask yourself if keeping young people in ag is actually more around growth in our senior leadership mindset, rather than in our juniors.
And by senior leadership, I refer to those who are in a position to improve themselves and their operation for the benefit of the up-and-coming generation.
This includes the parents, managers and corporate investors, but it also calls on the politicians, bankers, accountants, service providers and teachers of the world.
If you have a senior role in ag, then you have a part to play in making sure the ag door is open and retaining the next generation that chooses to walk through it.
- Libbe Paton is a director at Future Farmers Network and a beef producer in the Mitta Valley, Victoria