Make sheep farming ‘cool’ for next generation, says Jamie Heinrich
Ways to attract new blood to the sheep industry have enthused one young Kangaroo Island farmer.
THE sheep industry in Australia needs an overhaul to attract the next generation of workers to the sector, according to Jamie Heinrich.
Jamie, who helps run his family’s sheep farm on South Australia’s Kangaroo Island, recently completed a Nuffield Scholarship looking at ways to attract and retain young people in the sheep industry.
It’s a topic not lost on Jamie, who when in high school was advised against pursuing a career in agriculture, despite it being his passion, due to a perceived lack of opportunities and pay.
To keep his options open, he studied international business at university and worked in livestock and marketing with Thomas Foods International before returning to his family’s 880ha Ella Matta Pastoral business on Kangaroo Island in 2014.
He now co-owns and manages the business and holds industry leadership roles at national, state and local levels, adding that he’s been “overwhelmed by the abundance of opportunities within the sheep industry”.
“So, it is safe to say I proved my adviser wrong,” Jamie said. “Farmers in Australia and across the world are ageing. Agriculture could use a new wave of young people.”
The Ella Matta business runs White Suffolk, Maternal and Poll Merino studs. Ella Matta was the first White Suffolk stud registered in the world, in 1979. Today, they place a strong emphasis on growth, muscle, fat, lambing ease, worm resistance and eating quality.
Poll Merinos followed in the early 1990s with the main objectives being increased fleece weight, improved carcass traits, low micron, plain bodies and wrinkle free, and worm resistance.
The Ella Matta maternal composite flock was founded in 2014 with the aim of breeding a self-replacing maternal sheep producing a high percentage of fast-growing, meaty lambs benchmarked on the Lambplan database.
FORWARD THINKING
JAMIE said he had always held a strong interest in helping the industry move forward and had been heavily involved with this progression through his own development, as well as youth leadership and mentoring roles.
“Despite appearances, there are already many amazing young people in the industry,” he said. “We must capitalise on this momentum.”
In his scholarship report, Jamie said the Australian sheep industry was “in a great position with opportunity to grow” adding that increasing global demand for sheep products and decreasing sheep numbers globally were providing a solid platform for the future.
“For this opportunity to be fulfilled, the industry needs to attract enthusiastic young people with a wide range of skills,” he said.
Jamie said there were many ways in which this could be achieved. To begin with, the mindset of many farmers needed to change and become more positive.
“The industry must improve its image,” he said. “A strong image and positive public perception of sheep farming will help attract good young people. There is a growing need for a range of skills in a range of industry positions.”
He said to fulfil this, a full spectrum of clear study and career paths needed to be presented.
“The idea in schools that agriculture is for ‘less study inclined students’ needs to change,” he said. “The future of agriculture requires the best and brightest. Financial constraints are one of the biggest hurdles for getting into the sheep industry, especially for people who want on-farm businesses. “
Jamie said it was no longer necessary to own land to be a sheep farmer and encouraging connections between generations could go a long way towards providing options.
He said forms of finance, other than typical bank loans, could help break the financial entrance barrier.
TIME TO CELEBRATE
IN making recommendations in his report, Jamie said positivity “rather than publicly playing victim” was important.
“The current state of the industry should be celebrated as it compares well against most other industries,” he said.
“Sheep farming is, and should be, promoted (through joint industry marketing) as being ‘cool’.
“It can provide fulfilling careers through its positive social, environmental, and economic opportunities, that is, the ability to work with animals and improve the environment.”
He said exposing agriculture to young people early was vital and it could be presented as a career opportunity in schools.
“Agriculture needs an ever-widening range of skills; therefore, a matching range of career and study paths are required to attract and develop the right people,” he said. “This needs to be formalised. Successful farms are run professionally as businesses, not just as farms. If a farm is run professionally, it will treat its employees properly with all the appropriate wages and perks.”
Jamie said attaining off-farm experience, handing over responsibility and using formalised communication methods were starting points in making generational farms more attractive and less likely to fail.
He said mentoring could be used as a way to bridge the gap between generations.
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