The real charge I get from editing Country Guide is being able to connect with farmers who know what they want. They generate an energy it’s tough to find anywhere else
Most of us have participated in some version of a conversation like the one I had below. (I’ll leave it in gendered terms because it happened in a time like that.)
I stood in a farmyard, pointed to the 30-year-old son, and said to the father, “You must be proud. Brad’s about as smart as they make them.”
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“Yeah,” muttered the father. “Still can’t drive a straight line. Can’t say he ever will.”
It wasn’t that a dead-straight furrow was so crucial, of course. It’s just that it was clear to Dad. If you have what it takes to be a good farmer — pride, determination, technical knowledge, endurance — you will also cross the field straight. The one is proof of the other.
It’s also proof that agriculture hasn’t changed as much as we sometimes think.
Challenge yourself. Take a 30,000-foot look at your own career, or think of a daughter or son taking over. What three words will you have to describe you?
The first word is easy. At least it seems so to me. It’s “competent.” If you can’t produce, and if you can’t make all the parts come together, you can’t win at farming.
After that, it gets harder. A flood of “c” words come to mind. There’s commitment, of course, and curiosity is essential too. That goes without saying, but there’s also a list of “c” words that we probably wouldn’t have thought of a generation ago.
There’s even compassion, since it’s linked to empathy. EQ will prove essential to operating a high-functioning team, whether that team is doing field work or advising on high-level business strategy. It’s clear networking is going to become more important, not less.
We could add other c’s, like convincing or competitive, but there’s one more I want to focus on. It’s clarity of message.
Just as Brad’s father saw a straight furrow as a kind of gateway that meant his son would be able to use his strengths to create a successful farm career, so today’s parents can see clarity of message as a test for the upcoming generation.
A decade ago we might not have been able to make so much of this, but we can now because the proof is so clear. Clarity of messages leads to clarity of mind which in turn leads to clarity of purpose.
It precedes the kind of practical wisdom that is so essential in farming, helping transform goals into plans with measurable objectives.
When the talk turns these days to farmers becoming CEOs, this is really what it means.
It’s driving a straight line into the future, being able to convince others that you can do it, and making them want to buy into where you’re going.
It fills me with confidence for the next generation, so much better at this than their parents. And, frankly, it makes me glad to see the strengthening role of women in farming.
Are we getting it right? Let me know at [email protected].
