Will’s First Virtual Farm Tour For a School.
It’s good to talk about the technology available in the farming industry and whether a farmer of a certain age has the skills to cope with it. I for one fit that category and although it makes me nervous I am keen to embrace it and excited that it could take our industry into new and exciting times.
Last month I had the pleasure in delivering a lecture outlining my business to a group of year ten students in Cumbria. This you may wonder is a departure from my day job but is an example of technology in use.
Farming as an industry has an alarming problem in that its core work force has an average age of 56 yrs old. I luckily fall below that, just, but if we are going to embrace this new technology we must have an industry attractive for generations to come.
Over my farming career the industry has reduced its workforce drastically. Efficiencies have made us competitive and helped bring down the price of food. The cost of land makes it very difficult for new entrants and a lot of the roles on a farm are regarded as menial and low paid.
I have over the years been very open with our farm. In the early years we were proactive in giving farm walks to our customers from our butcher’s shop in Alton, primarily to give them the confidence to buy a genuine product but also to help them understand the process.
With our glamping site we show over a thousand people a year around the farm primarily to get them to appreciate their surroundings but also to send them away with a confidence to buy British.
Over the years I had hoped that some of my younger audience will have been inspired to think of Agriculture as a career as the industry cannot rely on a bunch of fifty year olds. This brings me back to my venture into lecturing.
Last Autumn I approached an organisation called LEAF(Linking Environment and Farming ) about linking up with local schools. LEAF has recently merged with FACE(Farming and Countryside Education).The primary goal is to inspire and educate future generations about farming, food and the countryside. Working with a regional consultant the aim was to link up with local schools and hopefully deliver a series of inspiring farm visits.
Sadly we haven’t been able to deliver yet but Jo my regional consultant has been proactive on Facebook and promoted the idea of doing this remotely and I as a willing volunteer, offered to do the first one. The process is remarkably simple and involved two people, a selfie stick ,a willing group of students and of course well behaved animals. We finished with a question and answer session which was a bit like being thrown to the dogs but I survived and will be better prepared next time.
Ultimately my point to this article is that with the industry changing and embracing new technology hopefully we will be an attractive career choice to the next generation and I for one am keen to inspire them.
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