Clinton Jedel and Dustin Krahn are part of the solution – but also part of the problem.
The agribusiness students at Assiniboine Community College in Brandon are preparing for careers in agriculture, but they, like most students in their class, grew up in rural Manitoba.
“Ninety-nine percent of them (classmates) come from a farm background,” said Krahn, inside a conference room at the Winnipeg Convention Centre.
Krahn, Jedel and their colleagues drove to Winnipeg to attend the Canadian Association of Agri-Retailers Convention and Trade Show, held Feb 5-7.
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At an industry panel session at the convention, James Richardson International president Curt Vossen said agriculture could no longer rely on rural kids to fill the majority of jobs in the industry.
“We have to look outside our normal boundaries,” he said, referring to students from urban Canada.
Fran Malecha, chief operating officer of Viterra, said those involved in agriculture must spread the word and work with schools to get rural students interested in pursuing jobs in agriculture.
In a morning session, Steve Peddie, manager of Western Canada for AgCall Human Resources, broke down the challenges facing the ag industry.
He told the audience that it comes down to demographics.
The number of farms and the size of farm families in Western Canada are shrinking.
The ag industry, both on and off the farm, has been forced to look outside of rural areas to find workers, he added.
“There’s going to be more new Canadians coming into our industry over the next decade,” Peddie said.
The upside is that more demand equals higher wages for workers.
“I’ve seen a dramatic increase in salary levels in ag over the last 36 months,” said Peddie.
Krahn, in his first year of the agribusiness program in Brandon, is proof of the demand for workers in the industry. He has already landed a summer job as an assistant sales rep for Westfield Industries, a grain auger manufacturer in Rosenort, Man.
Krahn plans to pursue a career in farm sales. Jedel would like to one day take over his family’s farm, near Austin.
Jedel, also in his first year, doesn’t have a summer job yet, but said he was confident that something would come along.
For Krahn, the job market and crop prices have created the almost perfect time to begin a career in ag retail sales. But it’s obvious he’s witnessed the ups and downs of farming. When asked if he expects the high crop prices to last, he replied: “No. It might be good for the next 10 years, but you never know.”
