Grow Apples, not Kodaks

Within just a few years, the market they relied on had disappeared, and they went bankrupt.

In 1998, the company, Apple, had a profit of $305 million and, their sales were decreasing.

However, they continued to move forward and change, releasing innovative products such as the iPod, iPhone and iPad, and by 2012, Apple had grown their profits to $41 thousand million.

Ten years ago, Uber did not exist and now they are the biggest taxi company in the world, yet they don’t own any cars.

The pace of change in today’s world is difficult to comprehend, however, statistics like these make me question whether myself, or Scottish agriculture as a whole, is adopting and capitalising on emerging opportunities at the same rate as the rest of the world.

As a 23-year-old dairy farmer from Lanarkshire, who has been working in agriculture full-time for three years, I am still relatively new to the industry and my level of experience is very much inferior to most of the other contributors to this column, who have been making their own good suggestions for change in recent articles.

However, a matter I do feel in a position to comment on is how young people in agriculture are being educated and introduced to the industry.

Since leaving school six years ago, with six Highers under my belt, I have made many choices to try and put myself into the best position to achieve a successful farming career.

Firstly, I went to SRUC Edinburgh to study agriculture, then, before beginning full-time work on my family farm, I spent five months travelling and working on farms abroad.

I am now part of the SAYFC National Council, and am well into my year as chairman of Carluke Young Farmers’ Club.

Over the past 12 months, I have been very fortunate to be part of Tesco’s Future Farmer Foundation.

I don’t intend to spend this article putting Tesco’s PR machine out of a job, but I have no hesitation in saying that the TFFF is an excellent opportunity for young farmers who are keen to push themselves to learn from each other, and from industry experts, about all sectors of agriculture and the food supply chain.

The TFFF programme is extremely well set up for young people in the agricultural industry who are looking to develop their knowledge and skills, and it was inspiring to see how much can be taken from an Agriculture course.

Undoubtedly, when choosing what course to study at university, Agriculture at SRUC was the most appropriate choice of course available to me.

However, discussions with some of the young people on the Tesco programme made me think back to the structure and content of the course, which sought to cover a broad range of topics in order to make agriculture accessible for students who may have had little or no experience within the agricultural industry.

I think there is a risk that the course tries to do too many things.

For newcomers to the industry the course provides plenty of basic knowledge, but offers minimal practical experience within the syllabus, meaning that they are not equipped with some skills required for employment.

Conversely, for more experienced students, the course does not cover cutting edge farming practices. Clearly all students are free to pursue their own opportunities outwith the course if they feel that there are areas which are not covered in enough detail but, by attempting to please everyone, I feel that the course struggles to fully provide for either type of student, and that got me thinking how this could be approached differently in the future.

Reflecting on my introduction to farming, one of the things I wish had managed to do more of is working for other businesses, out with my family farm.

While briefly working on farms abroad during my time travelling, discussing the matter with other farmers and hearing of the experience of some Agriculture students south of the border, where work experience (whether on a working farm at home or abroad or at a business associated with agriculture) forms a compulsory part of the Agriculture course syllabus, have all lead me to believe that this is one of the best things for a young person in the industry to do.

I think its value should be recognised by making working for at least six months for another employer (not connected to a student’s previous employment) an important and compulsory part of the Agriculture course.

From this, both the student and the employer will be able to pick up new ideas, and existing practices can be considered and changed to make sure businesses are not standing still.

I can also see an opportunity to use one of the various campuses that SRUC have available to create an Agriculture course which would be suited to young people who already have a strong base knowledge of agriculture or just want to be pushed to the forefront of developments in farming.

This could include greater detail on things such as assessing examples of best practice, upcoming farming methods, analysis of management accounts and personal and business benchmarking.

SAYFC is a good example of an existing institution which has responded to demand. They are now providing learning opportunities for young people to develop their skills, and I have been able to take advantage of training courses organised by SAYFC, such as cow foot trimming, a cow signals workshop and a welding course.

I am really pleased to see that the Government has committed £20,000 to SAYFC to promote careers in agriculture, as this will help to ensure we do not allow potential to leak from the industry and entice new entrants from different backgrounds.

The new Young Farmer of the Year competition, to be launched by SAYFC next year, will provide a chance for members to be rewarded for expanding their skills, and will also create progressive role models within the Association.

There are many opportunities for young people to learn to improve themselves, but there are also many ways to improve the learning opportunities for young people since Scottish agriculture should be looking to grow Apples in the future, not Kodaks.