As John Cté sees it, farmers are professionals, and just like any other professionals, they should be committing to some level of professional development every year.
No one can tell in 10 years if you’ll be growing blue apples or blue algae, says the Leask, Sask. grain farmer, or whether you’ll be planting 100,000 acres or only a few.
“But there is no doubt that the only way to win is to keep ahead of the curve,” says Cté, who also serves as vice-chair of the Canadian Farm Buisiness Management Council (CFBMC).
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Commit to continual learning
First, gain a competitive edge. Then maintain it, says Cté. Farmers across the country know that this is the key to success.
What this continuous improvement and development will look like, however, can be utterly different for each farmer, so Cté suggests farmers start by taking stock of their own operation’s strengths and weaknesses, and then matching these against their own personal strong and weak points.
Having an outside source evaluate this might be helpful. Sometimes it’s hard to be clear-eyed
about a business you’re so close to, and sometimes the image you have of yourself may not be the image that everyone else sees.
“From there you can identify the areas you should concentrate on,” Cté says. “Make a plan on how to get more information. Then, most importantly, follow through.”
Along the way, meanwhile, develop a healthy attitude toward learning opportunities. They can be some of the most memorable moments of your life. “Have fun with this,” Cté says. His own learning program has included production field days, a negotiating seminar in Washington, D. C. and travelling to other countries to study their farming practices, policies and cultures. “Learning doesn’t have to be boring.”
“I can guarantee you, each and every time you set out to improve yourself through continuous learning, you will not be disappointed with the results.”
Also, spend some time thinking through the ways that new technologies can help your educational initiatives, just like they help you in the field.
“We’ve also got equipment and technology that takes the guesswork out of how much of each input is going where,” Cté says. “Precision seeding, input application and harvesting is the way we’re all headed.” As a bonus, most GPS-guided applications, such as variable rate technology, aren’t just more green, they add to the bottom line too.
Farmers will find similar gains and similar unanticipated benefits with education technology, agrees Don Daigle, a vegetable grower from Acadieville, an hour north of Moncton, N. B.
“Who would have thought we’d have a world of information at our fingertips,” says Daigle, who is also president of the farm business council. “High-speed Internet and home computers have connected us all.” While most of farms in Canada today have computers and Internet access, the coverage isn’t absolute. Nor is the ability of farmers to get full benefit from their electronic connections.
This, Daigle says, will have to change if farmers want to stay informed and competitive. Dial-up and lack of computer savvy will leave you in the dust.
A strategic educational plan for you and your family members, says John Cté, will help keep your farm ahead of the changes that the next 10 years will bring
Do your best, hire the rest
Know what skills you can hire from others, Daigle recommends. “Surround yourself with the best people you can find,” he says. “Continually build and maintain a professional network. You never know who might know something that might help.”
For instance, says Daigle, knowing someone who understands the bureaucratic ropes is invaluable when starting a new venture. He points to a food-processing opportunity as an example. “Just to know who to speak with or what government department to deal with can make the difference between having the right certification or not being able to operate.”
Think through the list of skills that are needed to keep your farm moving forward, and then decide which you can access from others. This will leave you with a much more realistic list of skills that you need to acquire for yourself.
Building a network of suppliers, fellow farmers and professionals is essential to running a successful business. It helps in the sharing of information and in spreading the workload. “I’m farming but I still want a life,” Daigle says.
By recognizing what you’re good at and then leaning on someone else when their skills are what you need, you will get farther faster than if you try to do everything yourself, Daigle says. As an example, Daigle cites his neighbours, Marina and Patrick Henderson, non-farmers who immigrated from Europe and in four years have grown their farm, Au Fond Des Bois, into a highly prized cheese producer. They did it, Daigle says, with brains and hard work, and also by knowing when to tap into other people’s skills.
Change is inevitable, and it’s a farmer’s ability to adapt to those changes that spells success. Those changes may be mechanical, as in the adoption of new iron, but they may also be in production management, such as adopting multi-species or rotational grazing, or, perhaps most importantly, changes in farm or financial management.
Be open to change
It likely means not doing things like your granddad did, an idea that’s easy to commit to in theory but not always in practice, especially on multi-generational farms.
Like his father before him, Daigle has told his kids that he doesn’t want them to decide to take on the farm until they’ve seen a bit of their country and the world. Daigle says he’s travelled and continues to travel — whether it’s a few hours or a few provinces. “I tell my kids to go see what is possible, to learn from others, to see some of this great country. I don’t want them to settle here and in 10 years tell me they’re miserable and want to leave.” He credits the lessons he has learned, and continues to learn, from other farmers for a large part of his nearly 30-years of successful farming.
While we can’t know for certain exactly what agriculture will look like in 10 years and what skills you’ll need to succeed, Cté recommends everyone step back and think about how far agriculture has come in the past decade.
For most farmers, that trip has meant acquiring new skills. With today’s pressures on farm management, however, it’s best to anticipate the changes you’ll go through in coming years, rather than trying to keep up with them as they hit.
Besides, says Cté, education provides so many benefits. Farmers grow food for the world, and that’s a huge responsibility to shoulder, Cté says. “We receive support from the public in many ways, so maybe we owe it to them that we ensure that we are continually striving to improve ourselves. It’s not just about improving our bottom line financially — there are many other reasons that we should be engaged in managing change through learning.” CG
A strategic educational plan for you and your family members, says John Cté, will help keep your farm ahead of the changes that the next 10 years will bring
Do your best, hire the rest
Know what skills you can hire from others, Daigle recommends. “Surround yourself with the best people you can find,” he says. “Continually build and maintain a professional network. You never know who might know something that might help.”
For instance, says Daigle, knowing someone who understands the bureaucratic ropes is invaluable when starting a new venture. He points to a food-processing opportunity as an example. “Just to know who to speak with or what government department to deal with can make the difference between having the right certification or not being able to operate.”
Think through the list of skills that are needed to keep your farm moving forward, and then decide which you can access from others. This will leave you with a much more realistic list of skills that you need to acquire for yourself.
Building a network of suppliers, fellow farmers and professionals is essential to running a successful business. It helps in the sharing of information and in spreading the workload. “I’m farming but I still want a life,” Daigle says.
By recognizing what you’re good at and then leaning on someone else when their skills are what you need, you will get farther faster than if you try to do everything yourself, Daigle says. As an example, Daigle cites his neighbours, Marina and Patrick Henderson, non-farmers who immigrated from Europe and in four years have grown their farm, Au Fond Des Bois, into a highly prized cheese producer. They did it, Daigle says, with brains and hard work, and also by knowing when to tap into other people’s skills.
Change is inevitable, and it’s a farmer’s ability to adapt to those changes that spells success. Those changes may be mechanical, as in the adoption of new iron, but they may also be in production management, such as adopting multi-species or rotational grazing, or, perhaps most importantly, changes in farm or financial management.
Be open to change
It likely means not doing things like your granddad did, an idea that’s easy to commit to in theory but not always in practice, especially on multi-generational farms.
Like his father before him, Daigle has told his kids that he doesn’t want them to decide to take on the farm until they’ve seen a bit of their country and the world. Daigle says he’s travelled and continues to travel — whether it’s a few hours or a few provinces. “I tell my kids to go see what is possible, to learn from others, to see some of this great country. I don’t want them to settle here and in 10 years tell me they’re miserable and want to leave.” He credits the lessons he has learned, and continues to learn, from other farmers for a large part of his nearly 30-years of successful farming.
While we can’t know for certain exactly what agriculture will look like in 10 years and what skills you’ll need to succeed, Cté recommends everyone step back and think about how far agriculture has come in the past decade.
For most farmers, that trip has meant acquiring new skills. With today’s pressures on farm management, however, it’s best to anticipate the changes you’ll go through in coming years, rather than trying to keep up with them as they hit.
Besides, says Cté, education provides so many benefits. Farmers grow food for the world, and that’s a huge responsibility to shoulder, Cté says. “We receive support from the public in many ways, so maybe we owe it to them that we ensure that we are continually striving to improve ourselves. It’s not just about improving our bottom line financially — there are many other reasons that we should be engaged in managing change through learning.” CG
