“We don’t have enough young people from farming families entering the industry because often they want to do something different to their mum and dad, and parents who are not farmers don’t want their kids entering it as they believe it is not a safe industry,” he told the South Island Dairy Event (SIDE).
“And they’re right, it’s not only forestry that is getting the attention. We have to improve our safety record. But it’s not only that.
“Dairying is a hard job and I have a huge respect for the work our farmers do but fatigue, poor nutrition, mental problems and breakdown, especially in our young people, is concerning. There is a huge number who are exiting the industry because of burnout.
“As an industry we have to confront the issue that we are not developing sustainable work environments.”
He said dairying needed to attract larger numbers of people, both from schools, universities, and other industries.
“Unfortunately our school teachers are not encouraging but we have to ask why,” he said.
“We have to get our talented young people looking at dairying and saying I’d love to be part of that.”
He said as well as social problems, dairying’s environmental image was also damaging.
“There is a growing groundswell of opinion that we are not looking after our land or our waterways enough and young people don’t want to be part of an industry that does that. What we do behind the farmgate is no longer staying behind the farmgate and we have to be better at what we do.”
But in the marketplace, farmers were not compensated for good environmental practices.
“When it comes to eco-friendly milk, all they’re talking about is the packaging. Milk is not sold at a premium because it comes from a farm that is looking after its environment.
“Instead we are told what to do by regulators such as regional councils, and increasingly by consumers, but they don’t want to pay for it.”
He said the industry had to get its social and environment problems solved because “economically, dairying is a huge win for this country”.
“Dairying outstrips every other potential land-based business on a per hectare basis and as well a huge amount of money is spent per hectare to make that money. Milking cows earns a lot and invests a lot and so is a very good contributor to our rural areas.
“But we need to make it sustainable, and our environmental and our social issues need to be our focus so our young people become part of it and we have a future.”
