Where to get started
Farmers across Canada can access a wide range of mentorship programs. Some are for specific topics, such as grazing mentorship. Others are broader, such as farm business management for young farmers. Check out their websites. If you’ve got an idea, give them a call. All of them are eager to help.
STEP UP — An on-farm paid work placement for young farmers sponsored The Canadian Farm Business Management Council. Visit www.farmcentre.com/Features/TheNewFarmer/Resources/StepUpfor more information.
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Succeeding Generation: Building Farming’s Next Generation — A program aimed at supporting young farmers in Manitoba. For more information, log onto http://web2.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/programs/index.php?name=aaa36s01.
The Manitoba Farm Mentorship Program — A program aimed at smaller scale, organic and environmentally sensitive family farms in Manitoba. Visit http://organicfoodcouncil.org/info-producers_6.php for more information.
New Farms Incubator Program — Offered under FarmStart in Ontario, which includes a Mentor Farms program. Visit www.farmstart.ca/programs/new-farms-incubator-programfor more information.
Agriculture Mentorship Initiative — Offered through the Agriculture Council of Saskatchewan. Aimed at agriculture business owners hoping to improve their bottom line. Visit http://www.agcouncil.ca/ami.htm.
National Sustainable Grazing Mentorship Program — This program is administered by the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association through various organizations. To find the contact in your province, call Jim Stone at (403) 438-0172 or visit www.cattle.ca/factsheets/environmentand click on “Volume 2, Issue 1.”
Jim Stone doesn’t put up with excuses. He’s walked every inch of your land with you, shared countless phone calls and mugs of coffee while discussing possibilities, and now the two of you have figured out how to solve your problems and even create a vision for the future. What comes next?
The answer is simple, says Stone. Get to work.
Get started the minute the mentor drives out your lane, says Stone, a retired farmer and mentor in Olds, Alta. That’s when all the learning is freshest in your mind.
“They often say there isn’t time,” Stone recalls from his mentorship experiences. “Most often, that’s just a time management thing. We have to put priorities on the things we want to happen.”
It’s common sense, but Stone says sometimes it’s tough to convince his men-tees to make the time because they have so many other stresses in their lives.
Even so, says Stone, it’s money lost if you don’t act fast, either because you won’t be seeing productivity gains as quickly as you should, or because bad situations could be getting worse, meaning you’ll have to hire in help. “If you don’t make changes,” Stone says, “it could be $200 a day in somebody else’s pocket.”
All through the mentorship process, in fact, you’ll find you get better results by giving it the respect it deserves, even if it does mean extra work.
For instance, says mentoring consultant Jen Denys of Parkhill, Ont., it’s a good idea to set goals at the outset and measure them along the way.
Be as clear and specific as you can, Denys says. If your goal is to learn better farm business management, define what you will need to discuss, such as how to create a banker-ready business proposal, how to build in risk management or how to evaluate a diversification opportunity.
Then, take an inventory at the midway point of your mentorship (which you should have established at the beginning). Are you discussing your key issues? Most importantly, are you satisfied that your questions have been sufficiently answered?
“You have to have things to work on. Otherwise you’re just going to meet and do idle chit-chat,” says Denys. “That can be okay but people are busy and they want to use their time well. If you have some goals, then at the end of a year or six months you can look back and say, ‘This is what I accomplished and I feel good about that.’”
The process of setting goals can be informal or formal, but most experts recommend something written so there are no misunderstandings or gaps in learning. It’s mutually beneficial, says Melissa Dumont, project manager of Step Up, a mentoring program for young farmers. She requires two reports from the mentor and three from the mentee.
“Just having to sit and think about it and reflect on what they’ve been doing is good,” Dumont says. “Because it’s written down they can always go back and review it. For us, it helps us to know if the program is running well and that the goals of the program are being reached.”
If you’re not satisfied, this is your time to speak up. Stone says most mentors enjoy keeping in touch with their
