Agricultural News
Executive Recruiter Paints Radical Picture of Future Labor Needs 'Down on the Farm'
Thu, 28 Feb 2013 04:03:29 CST
Speaking during a panel discussion at the Ag Issues Forum (Sponsored by Bayer Crop Science), executive recruiter Greg Duerksen offered a vastly different view of future labor needs down on the farm than what one hears at the main street coffee shop or the local co-op. His experiences range from growing up on a grain and livestock farm in South Dakota to turning around the largest fertilizer producer and exporter in Latin America. His work around the globe as president of Kincannon and Reed has given him a unique perspective into the future of agriculture. Duerksen was questioned during the Ag Issues Forum by moderator Frank Sesno.
Duerksen says we're standing at the threshold of a future that few have imagined.
"The fundamental problem is that we have a mismatch between the old management and labor needs of farming and the current and future needs of leadership and talent for farming.
"Historically, we had owner-operators, like my father, like my grandfather, farmers, but from a management standpoint, they were owner-operators. They had limited geography. The farm was defined as what you could handle yourself with your kids and occasional low-skilled labor."
He says that has been replaced by today's grower-as-CEO.
"Today, we have farmers leading diverse geographies over continents or at least over states and they need not low-skilled labor, but they need teams of skilled managers and operators. And so you have to think dramatically differently about what you need for talent."
He says his firm currently has three active searches for farm managers in Canada, New Guinea, and the Ukraine. These are $300,000 per year jobs farming wheat, rice, and canola. Duerksen said this type of search can't be called common-yet-but it is the wave of the future.
"Here is the challenge for commodity crop farms: We can have a big farm, but it's still a small business. Allow me to explain. A 10,000-acre farm, that's a $100-million-dollar investment these days. That's a huge investment. With today's technology, that's about one hour of work required per acre. So, 10,000 acres, that's 10,000 acres. Well, that's five full-time people for a year. Well, actually, it's not. It's 4,000 hours in three weeks in the spring and 4,000 hours in three weeks in the fall. The rest of the time is split. So, that's a management job for one person with help. From that standpoint, it's a small business."
Duerksen says that the paradigm is also changing with regard to the hourly labor that is hired on today's and tomorrow's farms. Long gone are the days when children and unskilled labor worked for a few dollars an hour driving rather simple tractors by today's standards.
"The kind of skill that you need for managing those 100-to-400,000-dollar pieces of equipment is exactly the kind of skill and knowledge that you need to run sophisticated mining equipment. And that's your competition for the quality of talent you need to run those operations. And your competition is paying anywhere from 50 to 100 dollars per hour."
Duerksen said the need for this new class of highly skilled labor during short periods of the year will lead to a totally new type of worker.
"I think we'll see the emergence of the new migrant labor. The old migrant labor was manual labor picking fruits and vegetables. The new migrant labor is qualified, talented, skilled equipment operators that know equipment-how to fix it. They have technical training. They're reliable. They've passed drug tests and all of that. They are independent contractors who go to the equipment and travel around the country. It's already happening."
During the question and answer session that followed, Ken Root, a farm broadcaster from Iowa, challenged Duerksen's view of the need for future laborers. Root said that agricultural equipment manufacturers are moving toward robotic machines that don't require operators. Farm managers, therefore, will need even fewer employees.
Duerksen agreed with Root that technology will require fewer and fewer laborers as it develops which will increase the need for even more highly-skilled managers.
The Ag Issues Forum is a special seminar designed for the agricultural trade media, just ahead of the annual Commodity Classic- held here in 2013 in Orlando, Florida. Ag Issues Forum is sponsored by Bayer Crop Science.
Click on the LISTEN BAR below to hear the panel discussion.
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