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It is true that persistently dry conditions in North America are taking their toll on the agriculture industry. Many climatologists agree that we are experiencing the worst drought in more than 50 years.
As a result, forecasted yields for corn, wheat and soybeans have been revised down significantly. And that is pushing commodity prices up.
For a long time now, I’ve been telling audiences that farmers don’t retire, they just re-invent themselves. Each generation wants a comfortable lifestyle.
The founders’ roles change when they work to let go of the management and ownership reins. Sometimes they are still holding on far too long and just won’t get off their high horse of “needing to be in control.”
“There’s a huge talent pool that agriculture needs to pay attention to” quips BDO’s Jim Synder as we visit on the plane. Jim leads the agriculture component of a Canada-wide accounting firm and has experience with chartered banks as well.
He spent a lot of time on the road last year at seminars with Leona Dargis, an Albertan ag producer and Canada’s youngest Nuffield scholar, who is under 30 and running a large operation with her sisters and their spouses.
A few weeks ago I read a summary of the 2011 Census of Agriculture from Statistics Canada, a report that gets released every five years.
It included some interesting findings. For example, the number of farms in Canada is actually declining but the size of the average farm is increasing – a fact that suggests consolidation continues to be a significant force in Canadian agriculture.
“I wasn’t able to talk for over two years about what happened with my grandfather,” a young farmer confides as he describes a bitter battle over the transition of land titles from his father’s father to him.
I am concerned about the many threads of conversations across farm audiences this winter that weave a sad tale of loss, grief and exasperation with those farmers who are over 80 and are not finishing their farming careers well.
The increasing use of technology brings speed and efficiency to many processes, and business owners are right to leverage it. However, technology also provides opportunities for fraud.
And when times are challenging, fraud increases. In fact, a recent study by the Certified General Accountants Association showed that more than half the businesses operating in Canada today have experienced some form of fraud in the past five years.
The old adage of farming being a “way of life” no longer rings completely true. Farming is very much a business these days, much like any manufacturing or service industry in town.
Even the smallest dairy operations can show assets in excess of $1 million, as milk quota, in many cases with this size of unit, is the main contributor to the farm balance sheet.
One of the tricks of a great farm succession is the ability of the founder to let go of management and, ultimately, ownership.
There are many 60-something and 70-something farm dads on the bald prairie that just don’t know how to change from being the main manager to “the hired man.”
Farmers love carrots, don’t you know? They dangle one for years in front of the next generation, so to keep the young folks guessing when they will become part-owners and have their dreams turn into reality.
“The proverbial carrot that Dad is holding out is really getting me down,” says the young dairy farmer.
The family has grown its roots deep into the soil at their Abbotsford, British Columbia, area dairy farm.
Allan Mulder was just a boy in 1969 when his father purchased the farm where Allan and his wife, Dianne, raised their three daughters.
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