Next gen ag opportunities galore but beware, it won't go to plan

With the agricultural world now abounding with new career and business opportunities and technological advantages to help, the sector's young players should not be afraid to ask questions, seek advice, or communicate their ideas and ambitions.

Don't expect family farm succession strategies to work out the way you may had imagined, and be aware of what was happening in the lives of people around you - nobody's life was going to 100 per cent all the time.

Those messages were just some of the top of mind thoughts and personal reflections to emerge from Angus Australia's next generation beef leaders seminar at Beef 2024.

The panel session involved graduates from the breed society's GenAngus Future Leaders Program who were quizzed about what they felt success looked like, challenges in their work, mental health, business succession and simple ideas of advice for their peers.

"Be comfortable with being uncomfortable," said New Zealand-based Angus Australia extension officer and former Teys Australia abattoir team leader at Naracoorte, South Australia, Nancy Crawshaw.

"Put yourself to the challenge. The worst that can happen is somebody might say 'no'."

Ms Crawshaw reflected on what she was gleaning from her own deliberate "Sunday session" conversations with her father.

She had insisted the two regularly sit down, turn the phone off and talk for a couple of hours about the farm, her ideas and business succession - without the distraction of sheep yards activity or other farm commitments and decisions.

She had seen too many young farmers spend their first 15 years running their business and making the same mistakes their parents made in their own early years.

It was better to know what the pitfalls and poor decisions were likely to be in the first place.

NSW genomics territory manager with Neogen Australia, long time Angus breeder and youth program leader, and former livestock editor with The Land, Hannah Powe, said while there was a lot more awareness about the need to talk early and often about succession ideas and plans, it didn't always play out as anticipated,

From personal experience she now knew it was impossible to assume what a family business or individual career circumstances might look like in five of 15 years.

"We thought it was all going to be happy and follow a path, but as families grow and evolve things don't always work that way," she said.

Ed Bradley, Hazeldean Angus, Cooma, urged next generation farmers to also see the succession picture from the parents', or grandparent' point view, because it was pretty tough letting go of something they had built up and had been their life for decades.

"They want the best for the family, and the farm, and they'd like to still be helping in the yards, rather than being expected to spend the rest of their days at the coast without much to do except eat prawns and get fat, he said.

Ms Powe said it was also important to develop a mindset that worked out what success realistically looked like "for yourself", including, for your own sanity, and not committing yourself to excessive work pressure.

"Our industry can be very busy, and there is the pressure to be busy for 12 or more hours a day and expect yourself to always be doing more jobs - but it is okay to have a few days off," she said.

The GenAngus program which has involved 65 young breed supporters, is backed by agricultural insurance group, Achmea Australia, whose managing director, Emma Thomas, noted the accelerating pace of technological change had enabled big productivity and management efficiency gains in the past decade.

However, it also brought new risks virtually unknown to prior generations.

A GPS malfunction meant the operating precision required of a tractor or header could become a major production cost; cyber security breaches were a real and growing danger, and learning to use data effectively took time and skill.

Angus Australia extension manager, Jake Phillips, agreed, with so much more information available to farmers than ever before it was not easy to make sound decisions swiftly, especially as agriculture was an industry which required patience and long term perspective.