What Farmers really want

By Scott Mckinnon - Freelance Strategy Consultant working in Agtech/Agribusiness

My family has been farming for several generations, it must be in the blood. So instead of buying a water front investment property, a fishing boat and a set of golf sticks like 95% of the population aspire to, we have bought a small rural property, a tractor, a shovel and large hoe. There's something in the hours of weed control, fencing and watching the trees we planted grow. The vision to always try to create a more productive and healthy environment, be more self supporting, and also be a productive part of the food production industry. We won't be feeding the world, however we may help feed a few of the neighbours. It doesn't matter if you're a major corporate farm operation, family farm or a small scale lifestyle farmer, the challenges of farming are similar.

I was thinking about the challenges and needs that all primary producers have, no matter what the scale or what the industry. I have worked in the Ag industry all my life, and a majority of it in large scale business focused on big farming operations, it is interesting thinking about how we can be productive in the front line on a much smaller scale.

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I have concluded the challenges are pretty much the same and come back to 4 main categories:

   * Not enough land

   * Not enough money to invest

   * The need for new, better, different machinery

   * The need for more, or better quality stock

The challenge as a producer is always, how can I make more money from what I already have? Having an endless line of credit would be great to build, improve and invest, however in reality this is not available so it needs to come from the current operation. What it boils down to is 'how can I get the knowledge, to help me make the best decision for the operation, management and profitability from the land and resources I have available?' There are still only so many hours in the day, and days in the year, so every decision is about prioritising time, money and resources to get the job done. That is once I have decided what the job is and 'what to do'.

There is a really interesting concept about being innovative in business and developing new product in the consumer world called 'jobs to be done'. Looking at what people are doing and how they are doing things can lead to creating innovative solutions which satisfy a 'job to be done'. Quite often in farming getting the job done is often some of the easiest part of the decision process it is resource allocation and planning. Years of experience, understanding and technological advancement have helped the 'doing' part quite well. The challenge can be deciding 'what do I need to do' to satisfy some of the 4 needs I have mentioned. Support for the strategic decision making process seems to be most lacking. Especially if you want to get into a green field area that hasn't been commercialised before, or something new to your area that is different that what everyone else around you is doing today. Whether it is to continue the current plan and expand onto a larger area, or wanting to change the current operations using the same or reallocated resources, the issues are the same.

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The challenge I see going forward in such a variable climate, with an ever changing political and social environment for individual farmers, is the lack of time and skills for strategic decision making that they will need to adapt and thrive. I see a lot of public and private investment going into the 'solutions' side of agriculture. Whether it is breeding, technology, digital platforms or chemistry, conventionally the industry is focused on creating the newest, best or most efficient solution. We have government and private enterprise pouring money into innovation centres, incubators, tech conferences and business hubs for the solution sector. The view is, lets make new solutions, create new business and we can solve farmers problems. I see a lot of value in using the same tools and collaborative business environments for the farmers themselves. Getting large scale corporate producers together with the supply chain on a regular basis to make process more efficient, pool together smaller farmers to workshop the options for a future farm strategy for them, cooperative thinking on sharing resources and marketing together. By creating strategic and innovative thinking at farm and paddock level we can evolve the conventional thinking of what to farm where, and for who.

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I'm sure my friends think I'm crazy and that I should just buy a boat and a new fishing rod. However where is the challenge with that, when compared to crafting the environment and landscape to create a productive and better future. All the questions still come back to 'what do I do to maximise the resources available to be the most productive and profitable', getting the information and knowledge to create and clarifying a strategy is critical.