Are Adelaide kids the answer as South Australian drought exposes agriculture workforce crisis?

If conditions don’t change soon, these South Australian families could see a way of life disappear forever.

Frank Tohl has been working on the land for 43 years and seen many seasons but none quite as bad as this.

His paddocks near Yatina just north of Jamestown where he grows wheat, barley, and oats have only had 21mm of rain so far this season.

It’s been enough to paint the fields with a green tinge, but much more is needed to save this season.

“Without rain, we’ve got nothing,” he said.

“This is the worst drought I’ve seen.

“We’re going into our third year of drought. If this one doesn’t go well, it will make it hard.”

For any good to come this year, it will have to rain soon and the season will have to run late, he said.

Frank Tohl on his property just north of Jamestown. Picture: Brett Hartwig

Hotter temperatures and drier winters over the past two decades are hitting farmers where it hurts most – their bottom line.

Farm profits have dropped by nearly a quarter since the turn of the century, with the average broadacre farm earning around $29,000 less each year, according to a recent ABARES report.

Crop growers are doing it particularly tough. When the rains don’t come, harvests collapse, wiping out months of work and investment – a gamble that’s getting riskier in the drier inland areas.

Hay costs have skyrocketed from $330 to $600 a tonne, leaving farmers “battling to buy hay” at current prices.

To help raise funds for struggling farmers, the inaugural Drought Breaker Lunch will be held at the Adelaide Showground on July 18. Hosted by the Royal Agricultural and Horticultural Society of SA, in partnership with Rural Aid and Rural Business Support, all funds raised will provide critical services, including mental health support, financial counselling, food and fuel vouchers, and long-term wellbeing programs.

With sheep and cattle to feed, Mr Tohl, 58, was grateful to receive 14 bales from Rural Aid’s recent Jamestown hay drop.

“When we’re accessing that, that’s our last resort,” he said.

“That’s getting us through a tight spot because green feed’s got no guts in it.”

Hay Run trucks entering Jamestown last month. Picture: Ben Clark

The drought hitting our farmers highlights a deeper challenge facing Australian agriculture – an ageing workforce struggling to attract young people.

“With the way it is, who’d want to be farming?” Mr Tohl said.

The average Australian farmer is 56 according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics data, with the allure of city life and higher-paying industries making farming a harder sell.

With farming in his blood, fourth generation farmer Anthony Hurst, 49, always planned to take over his family farm at Avenue Range, west of Lucindale.

So he did exactly that, returning to the South-East after finishing school in Adelaide and working as a jackaroo.

Now he farms about 2000 hectares of land, running sheep and cattle and cropping wheat, barley, broad beans and lupins.

Anthony Hurst at his farm in the South-East last year. Picture: Ben Clark

The past two years of drought have hit him hard, forcing him to reduce his stocking rates by up to 25 per cent for both sheep and cattle and send “a couple of hundred” cattle to NSW on agistment.

The property has received just 65mm of rain this year, with most falling in the last three weeks – well short of the 558mm annual average.

“A month ago here we were a dust bowl with not a bit of feed in the paddocks,” he said.

“We’ve got a bit of pick but if we get two or three big rain events, we’ll get too wet, too cold, and go into that green drought.”

Despite the tough conditions, the father of one remains optimistic about getting to the other side – but he worries about what lies ahead for farming families.

While succession within farming was once a given, it’s no longer guaranteed, he said.

“We don’t have enough kids in rural and regional areas,” he said.

“The big boys are getting bigger and pushing the little farmers out.

“We’re less numbers in our schools because we don’t have as many families.”

Mr Hurst said we need to harness young people’s passion for agriculture as they’re the future of the industry. Picture: Ben Clark

He believes the solution lies over 300km away in Adelaide, where hundreds of students are keen to escape the big smoke for a life on the land.

“We need to get these kids that have got an interest in agriculture hands-on experience and harness the passion that these kids have got so that they can have a career,” he said.

Technology has transformed agriculture in his 30 years farming, and tech-savvy city kids can help drive this evolution, he said.

“Technology has really ramped up in the last decade to the point where we’re using farm management apps, performance recording apps daily.

“There’s so many careers within agriculture. You don’t just have to be a sheep and cattle farmer or a cropping farmer.

“When you look at agriculture now, it’s not just being a farmer that runs sheep or cows.

“You’ve got advisers, auctioneers, agronomists, fertiliser, merchandise, animal product representatives that kids can get into if they don’t want a hands-on job.”

Rob Brokenshire on his Mt. Compass property. Picture: Matt Turner.

His passion for nurturing the next generation is shared by Mount Compass dairy farmer and former parliamentarian Rob Brokenshire, 68.

“It makes it easier if you’re born to a family farm, but we need to reach outside of that and into the future,” Mr Brokenshire, president of SA Dairy Farmers Association, said.

“There’s no reason why kids from the city or from a rural region can’t become really good farmers as long as we create pathways for them.”

Programs like Cows Create Careers and the SA Sheep and Junior Heifer expos are engaging students with hands-on experience and career pathways beyond traditional farming roles.

He’s spent over a decade working with Mount Compass Area School on the Cows Create Careers program and has seen “really good results” in engaging young people with dairy careers.

Mr Brokenshire is confident agriculture will continue to be a strong pillar for the economy post-drought. Picture: Matt Turner.

Mr Brokenshire said better pay and structured traineeships are attracting more students, who can work on farms three to four days a week while studying at TAFE.

“We have an apprentice on our dairy farm all the time,” he said.

“We’ve had over 12 come through (...) all of them are now in full employment.

“We had an apprentice come through. He got his certificate three. He’s now full-time and is one of our best workers.”

Agriculture produces over $80 billion annually and supports hundreds of thousands of jobs across regional Australia.

This makes investment in programs connecting young people with agriculture vital for the industry’s future.

“We’ve got such a viable industry. We’re the food bowl of the country,” Mr Hurst said.

“It’s so important that government systems get behind agriculture and support programs to get kids into regional and rural areas.”

Originally published as Are Adelaide kids the answer as South Australian drought exposes agriculture workforce crisis?