Dairying is the future of young farming in Australia, the Australian Dairy Industry Council's annual breakfast on Friday was told.
Sociologist Professor Neil Barr exploded the myth that farming in general was less attractive to young people.
Although the number of young people on farms had fallen 75 per cent since 1976, this was mostly due to other societal changes.
”Two-thirds of that fall is because there are fewer farmers; the farms have got larger,” he said.
Other social changes such as people entering the workforce later because they were becoming more educated, people marrying later and people retiring later because of better health in older age also contributed.
“So when you take all those things into account, it is only about 10 per cent of that decline in young farmers is actually due to what you could call farming looking less than attractive as a career,” Prof Barr said.
But the overall picture disguised stark differences between industries.
The proportion of young farmers in the beef, sheep, cropping and horticultural industries had fallen but the change in dairy was almost negligible.
”Dairying tends by the nature of the work to foster a business ethic that you build wealth and then you work out an exit strategy because I don't think doing it at 80 appeals to most people,” Prof Barr said.
This meant that regional areas where dairy dominated had a younger farmer population that was more dynamic, with a great willingness to invest and a fair bit of excitement about the future.