Thought Leadership – Is Agriculture Headed for Disaster Due to Knowledge Lost

Agriculture is headed towards a cliff.

As 61% of the industry heads towards the ripe old age of 60, we have not identified how to transfer knowledge fast enough to sustain the next generation.

We all remember riding in combines with our parents and them telling us the stories of our grandparents. Dirt under the fingernails, the feeling of open cab sprayers with mist on the back of your neck, and the true test of shoveling out a square bin held together by wires crisscrossed and in the way all the time. But as this age demographic moves on from the farm, we will lose the knowledge factor that comes from experience in production and operations faster than ever before.

When you add that to the loss of academics and professionals in the industry, I believe we are about to see a mass exodus of the top thought leadership in the industry. Names such as Danny Klinefelter (recently passed), Dick Wittman, Dr. Kohl, Merle Goode, and many others that have cemented their legacy in the halls of leadership and education, are entering their retirement ages and all of us will be worse off because of it. 

When I attended TEPAP for the second semester in January, I realized that I needed to soak in as much knowledge as possible, because we won’t always have access to these amazing thinkers moving forward.

I apologize to those who believe they can take the place of the greats, because you can’t. I put myself in this category as well, as I did not live through the financial crisis and I did not have a hand in creating the banking and accounting systems in a country such as the US to crawl out of what could have been the demise of agriculture. I am mentored by these greats and as such I hope to carry on what they have taught. But I am well aware that I am not the same, nor may I ever be.

Recently, we had Dean Klippenstine on The Truth About Ag podcast and during the recording, I realized that even in my backyard we are going to lose those professionals who built the way we think about agriculture consulting. 

Dean already jokes (or hints) at retirement, and the generation of accountants to follow have only been taught about how to be productive, not leaders in thinking and innovating. Even now I question how the largest agriculture accounting firm will fill this void. They only make visionaries like that once in a lifetime, and to make fun of myself, most accountants do not fit this mould. We are black and white in a world of grey.

To believe that others will not come around is also me being slightly naïve. They will just be different. I am proud that I am an elder millennial – that means I was around for times before the internet and before my cell phone could link into my combine. 

We were thrust into consulting when land was on the rise and we have seen financial leverage tools and debt mechanisms that are far more complicated than simply getting a land loan. Debt is no longer a survival method, it is now a return on investment decision and used for mass consolidation and growth. Times change, advisors change, but to not respect what has happened in the past would be a mistake.

At the last Farmer Coach session, a participant asked the question: “what was the largest change in agriculture we have seen?” 

We could have said GPS, no-till, variable rate, or any of the many advancements we have been around for. The most interesting part was his grandfather’s answer was “electricity”, and his father’s answer was “roundup”. I think we forget how far we have come.

To those who are part of the education and academic system in agriculture today, I beg and plead with you to get knowledge from those before you. Go to TEPAP to learn from the greats, read their articles, and get the history before it is too late. We often believe that we are further ahead than where we are, that is why a true skill in consulting is humility. 

The motivation to get better, know more, learn more, and listen is a skill. In the times of social media maybe we should just be quiet and listen and let those before us guide our future. Put up a fence before we drive off the cliff.