All about the life experience

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By Dwain Duxson - An Ag Enthusiast

All about the life experience - We wrote yesterday about how each and every Farmer has an opportunity to take advantage of the work-on-a-Cattle-station trend that we are currently experiencing. Family Farms can join in, but changes would have to be made to come into line with why young people want to flock to these Nothern Cattle stations. This Farmer Manager replied to yesterday's story. I strongly believe he has nailed it. He has given us the why; now, we need to construct the how. He said this:

"The reason I think this model is so successful is because it is a way of life experience, not a job experience. Having spent a year on a Cattle property in southwest QLD with my partner it is easy to see what the attraction is. You live it, breathe it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The high level of social engagement, self-reliance, and teamwork is integral to this model. Everyone is in it together. There is no them and us. Whether it is corporate or family ownership doesn't seem to make a difference to the experience. 

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I have, in recent times, managed a corporate Farming Cropping enterprise and now work for a family Farming mixed enterprise, and these models are a job experience, not a way of life experience. To the family-owned enterprise, it may be a way of life to the owners, but that does not translate to their workers. The Corporate Farming enterprises are closer to the northern model because we are all workers of the enterprise, whether you are the CEO or Farm hand. If we want to spread the northern model throughout the Australian Farming landscape, then we need to sell the life experience, not the job experience. Change the emphasis from job to life experience".

So there it is. If you want to attract these sorts of people, you would have to think long and hard about what you have to offer as far as life experience goes. How could we transform a more traditional Farm hand model into something very different? Get your team together, nut it out, and come up with an evolving blueprint of something that would be bloody exciting. What would be one or two of your ideas that would make this work? Reply to dwaind@farmtender.com.au

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