Young farmers want more time off, have better skills than their parents

PORT PERRY — Young people do things differently. Get used to it.

That’s one message from Betty Green, who operates a cow-calf to finishing operation two hours north of Winnipeg.

It’s a tough message for more than just the crustier farmers, who have grown children expecting to take over the farm. These young farmers are better educated, have better marketing and technology skills and are better equipped than their parents to carry the load, Green said.

Green was part of pilot-project workshop targeting farmers under the age of 40. The project, sponsored by the Regional Municipality of Durham, OMAFRA and the Ontario Cattlemen’s Association, involved a one-day seminar Feb. 7 in Port Perry called "Finding a future in beef."

The big surprise for older generations is that "young people have so many skills to offer ," she said. "We’re blown away by their skills."

She said her family operation with 1,000 cows expanded in the past 10 years to include their 33-year-old son and his wife and their 32-year-old daughter and her husband. Their agronomist son can make decisions about what to plant much more quickly than Green can. She has to consult the specialists. Campus life has given their son immediate access to a plethora of contacts to call when they’re stumped on what to do. Their son-in-law’s mechanical skills now mean they can retrofit machinery and nothing leaves the property for repairs.

You often hear people complain that the younger ones don’t have a work ethic. Green disagrees, recalling this anecdote about time off. "Our initial reaction was how come these guys want time off? We’ve come to realize these guys know how to work smarter, not harder. They know how to enjoy life outside the business."

The two generations have different points-of-view and that makes communicating and succession planning an incredibly difficult process, she said. Of the more than 50 young farmers at the workshop, many wanted to know how you make succession easier. "You can’t," she said. "It’s a five-year process. There is so much emotion and a lot invested."

Here’s an example of generational differences. One sibling talks to his father about changing crops and his father’s back stiffens. He asks: "I’ve been doing things so wrong?"

Someone else suggests an idea and the same sibling says, "No way, we’re not going to do that." It’s only much later that the sibling realizes: "Wow, I’m sounding a lot like my dad."

It takes time for the father-in-law to see your point-of-view and it takes time for the younger generation to understand why parents did what they did, she said. "I tell the young generation that the old generation may have done things differently but they did it for them."

Green’s philosophy sounds biblical: Honour your father and mother. And the flipside, parents don’t discourage your children. Said Green: "There is nothing better than seeing the new generation coming on."