Some of us are lucky enough to be born on the land and grow up with an inherent attachment to agriculture, whether we decide to pursue it as a career or not.
Personally, I can't imagine not having an understanding of stock behaviour, knowing the difference between a steer and a bullock or the importance of vaccination programs, and gentle, considered weaner handling.
Wasn't I born knowing how to handle a set of pliers and sight a fence?
I can't remember being officially taught these skills and sets of knowledge, rather, I suppose I learned by absorption. Watching and copying. How incredibly lucky is that?
One of the wonderful things about agriculture in today's world climate is how attractive it has become to our urban friends as a very promising career path. Go us! Look at how we've marketed our industries!
But... and there's always a but... these keen as mustard city kids were born knowing how to reverse parallel park between a garbage truck and an ambulance vehicle, not knowing how to cinch a girth and cut a calf.
And so we have ourselves a new age problem - too many potential employees with too little training.
The Palaszczuk government may as well have burned every ag college down, and every employer I know is advertising for skilled team members.
The biggest commodity shortage for ag employers is time - the very reason they're advertising for help in the first place.
Ideally, we would all take on school leavers and accountants bored of crunching numbers and train them in exactly the style we'd like them to perform in our businesses.
We can't and we don't because we simply do not have time.
So, what's the answer? Big company organisations are exempt from this and for the most part have decent training programs for new staff coinciding with excellent marketing campaigns designed to attract young people into their operations.
The little man, Joe Blow from Mitchell running his family-owned and operated breeder property isn't in this league and consequently faces a labour shortage despite virgin agriculturalists wishing and hoping.
Fortunately, Labor didn't raze the Emerald and Longreach campuses... is it unreasonable to suggest reopening?
Was the mark missed in years gone by with the marketing of ag school pushed as skill extension opportunities for bush kids already in love with the land?
Should it now be pumped along in city schools where we're finally seeing kids looking at agriculture as an exciting future prospect?
As it stands, we're in a pickle. Sooner or later someone will notice the dollar signs linked to Queensland agricultural production and someone with an eye to the future will see value lost in closing down such integral learning institutions. We can only hope.
- Lucy Moore, writer/grazier
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