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By Dwain Duxson

Agree agree agree agree agree - Yesterday, we did a report card on the NFF and have had a huge response from Farmers. We will park it and come back to it next week. Today, I want to focus on this article, which outlines the findings of Nuffield Scholar Charles Downie. 

Read the article first. My take on it is that he is spot on. We are looking for technology to solve our Farming problems, but it's not happening. Tech or Ag Tech can't and won't. But it can solve a small part of the problem but not the problem itself.

We wrote about when the lack of people starts to affect Farm Business performance the other day. Take a read here. So it comes back to who we have working in the business and what they do. Farms are physical things, and physical things need people. Getting that Sheep Crutched required a person to do it. The tech advantage is that we have a Sheep Handler to make it easier, as opposed to dragging it across the board. We also have an electric handpiece as opposed to a set of Shears. That's the tech. But it still requires a skilled person to Crutch the Sheep. That's not changing in our lifetimes.

So the Sheep Handler and electric Handpiece make the job easier, and we can bang out more, but the job doesn't change. Placing more emphasis on upskilling and looking after the people will trump the tech most times. In other words, having a nicer House for staff members to live in will get you more productivity than buying a fancy Drone every time. Ag Tech may solve our people problems one day, but not anytime soon. So let's keep turning up for work. Has a piece of tech replaced a complete job on your Farm? Reply to dwaind@farmtender.com.au

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