Agricultural Generation Gap

Its been a while since I was compelled to blog even though I do have a list of topics sitting ready to write! But todays #aggen debate on twitter has spurred me on!

Having been involved in various ancillary/support roles to agriculture I'd like to give my own view of how I see the whole generation debate.

Firstly this is first and foremost a UK issue not just a Agriculture issue and the UK need to sit up and recognise this. If we dont 'replenish' our farming stock we are going to face a situation very soon where we have no home grown local food for local people and its going to be a total supermarket rule. Or worse our food will all be imported. And yes some of you may say this is an exaggeration but it is a very real future!

Having worked with many farms in the Aberdeenshire area for almost 10 years I have been in the position to have seen both sides of the fence on this story grow.

Firstly lets take the older generation side of it. Now bear in mind this is purely observation and not being from farming stock myself but working within/alongside the industry I feel that I have a unique view.

Older generation farmers are increasingly becoming older! Yes I'm stating the obvious but in what other industry is it acceptable for a 70+ year old person to be working a 12+ hour day? The machinery is increasingly getting larger and more powerful. And sadly as we get older our reactions become slower. Are we looking at an accident waiting to happen? No its already happening - on farm deaths are increasing and a large percentage of them are older farmers. Now this all sounds like I'm anti older generation - I can assure you I'm not. One of the reasons my clients employ me is that I take time to listen to them and regularly have healthy debates with them regarding all sorts of issues. These guys and girls have a mountain of information within their heads in fact I remember saying to one farmer, who unfortunately is no longer with us, that he'd forgotten more than I'd ever know! And it was true!

These people are a mountain of information and if you got them all together could probably teach any advisor a thing or two! I know I was! So people why are we not utilising this magnificient knowledge base before its gone?

I'll tell you - its because the younger generation (of which I am one being only 30!) are too stubborn/in a rush/oh what does he know - to stop and listen.

And yes this may sound like I'm anti younger generation but here is why I am not.

The younger generation have as much going for them as the older generation but in different ways. They have youth on their side! They can understand/handle improvements in technology and equipment etc and are keen and able to progress. But here is the big question - is progression really progression? just because you can now do something quicker doesn't make it better!

And l digress lets get back to the main reason behind the #aggen debate - the inability of younger generation to get into farming due to financial implications and lack of assistance.

There are many parties out there proclaiming to be advising/contributing/handling this issue but in reality none of them are so its time for the industry to stand up and come up with a proposal as to how this could work.

Heres my spin on it.

There are many older farmers struggling to maintain their farms on their own. There is a lack of interest or ability for younger people to get into farming due to various constraints. There is a new entrant scheme available that has too many constraints. So why not do something along these lines.

Make the scheme simpler to get into. If you are a new farmer up to the age of say 40years, looking to start or improve your farming enterprise we will accept you. But this has to be means tested and the farm in question cannot be funded by any other farm. This way genuine new entrants can get a slice of the pie and not just Big Farmer Smiths son who already has plenty money and is trying to and successfully screwing the system! Right so we have a scheme that more people can qualify for now where are the farms coming from??

Well we have all these struggling older farmers so how about approaching some of them to see if they'd be interested in going into partnership with a new entrant. Formal partnership agreement drawn up, maybe a bit of financial assistance to do this etc but when older gen decides its time to sit by the fire or go to the big mart in the sky he knows his farm is in good hands as he's been working alongside his successor already for a while. And yes this would have to be thrashed out to make sure that there is a get out clause/cooling off period etc but why not utilise both sides of the generation gap to make farms work?

I also have seen how badly ancillary industries can work with both sides of the debate.

This makes my blood boil as being primarily an agricultural advisor my clients know that they get a unique service from me where I actually listen to them and discuss things etc and also glean information from them. To quote previously mentioned farmer " Aye ye listen and discuss, unlike a certain establishment fa jist wants yer money and sends yi bits o paper - yi niiver see someone on farm"

Having spoken to lots of people using lots of different advice channels over my 10 year working in the industry the common theme is that they are never fully happy with the service provider and yes you may say they're farmers they're never happy but I can honestly say that isn't true of the people I work with. And yes that does sound rather egotistical but those of you that know me know that is really not the case.

So what do I do differently? I take the time to build a relationship with my client, this could be over weeks or months and I truely listen. I will give advice snippets that I know are guaranteed to work - free of charge then they will come back to me and look for more work. I also refuse to charge a standing fee to anyone and they only pay for the hours I work. I find that farmers respond well to this and having also been in legislation enforecment where I had a similar approach I know this works.

But the key is listening and being interested in what they are saying. So many advice providers dictate this is the way etc and that is not how to do it. You have older clients that as mentioned previously have forgotten more than you'll ever know and then younger ones who have as exciting ideas as you do. Hit both markets but more importantly bring them together and make the #aggen gap smaller. Get this knowledge spread out and allow for flexible working so both sides of the arguement can get a bite at the apple and learn from each other. But more importantly they together can secure the future of Agriculture within the UK.