Millennials are defined as people born from 1980 to 2000. Nationwide, there are 83 million millennials. In agriculture, we are becoming more familiar with the term millennials, especially as we focus on who has the buying power of the product we produce: beef.

Bull sales happen year-round due to different calving cycles and seasonality nationwide, but Jan. 1 seems to kick off a very high percentage of sales, and they go strong through late April. It’s equivalent to the hectic retail season from Thanksgiving through Christmas.

Nationwide, family farms are conducting the steps of transferring farms from one generation to the next. More young people are seeing prosperity in agriculture and gaining interest in returning to their rural roots – which is exciting for the future of agriculture.

In the late 1930s, when my dad was 6 years old, he drove a team of two horses mowing and hauling hay. By the time he was 12, he was directing a four-horse team to plow fields and plant crops.

One of the most important responsibilities of an agricultural organization is identifying and hiring someone to lead the organization. Large corporations struggle with this as well – because it can be a daunting task to identify: What are the organization’s needs? Who is the person to fulfil these needs?

When we challenge ourselves and look outside our regular world, we can learn critical new elements to apply to our lives. For example, I spend a lot of time reading about agricultural topics to stay current, but I also read as much as I can about the business culture, especially leadership, management and human resources topics or listening to speakers addressing these issues.

Mention to someone in the cattle industry, “What are your plans for a vacation this year?” and they will most likely roll their eyes at you and say, “Vacation, what is that?”

In the May issue of Progressive Cattleman, my column focused on “Why people follow leaders.” Followers may include employees, middle managers, committee members, volunteers, etc. According to Gallup, the four main reasons followers follow leaders are trust, compassion, stability and hope.

Warren Buffett defines a leader as “someone who can get things done through other people.” True leaders have the ability to chart a vision and motivate, inspire and empower people to follow them.

Agriculture has always been known as a people business. For decades, business deals were done with a handshake, no paper trail needed.