Paid a pittance

Extracted from the Farm Tender weekly Newsletter - Sign up and get the email every Wednesday morning before 5 am. www.farmtender.com.au

By Dwain Duxson.

Our son Raleigh was at me over the weekend about the time I paid him $300 a week as a 17-year-old to cold call companies for our Farm Tender business. Now there is a fair bit of banter each way on a wide range of subjects when we catch up, but this one gets a little more airplay than anything else.

My thinking was to try and teach him about a full day's work, getting results and earning your keep once you prove yourself. And I'm sure plenty of Farm kids have been paid much less. Isn't that what you do with your kids?

To add fuel to the fire, I took Raleigh to a Field Day, and we caught up with an exhibitor (Peter McRobert, he won't mind me mentioning his name), we got talking Ag, and then Peter started banging on about how we have to pay the kids in Ag properly. Do you reckon I was getting a few kicks in the ankles?

It didn't last long, a couple of months, and as soon as he got his driver's license, he quit and found a better-paying job elsewhere.

Anyway, it's one I am not going to live down anytime soon.

My attitude to my son is probably the same as Ag's attitude to paying its people.

Being a bit lighter on the pay packet has cost Ag I reckon.

Remember when many rural people went and worked in the mines because the pay was always better. Those same people could have been working in Ag had the package been more attractive. But to counterargue, the mining industry was so much more resourced at the time, so they could afford to pay more. Ag was struggling a bit at that point.

But now, Ag has entered a new era. So we need to get that "pay them a pittance" attitude out of our heads. We have to have a change of attitude.

If we want good people to come into our Ag businesses, we have to pay them well, incentivise them, present them with good conditions and give them flexibility and autonomy to thrive.

People are our biggest assets in Ag.

Currently, there is a scramble to find people for Ag roles, and many have all but given up looking. But I reckon those who believe they can attract good people and offer something compelling will find what they want. It will come to them.

For those that don't believe, you have to find a way.

I know a lot of Ag businesses that are investing heavily in better working conditions and upgrading accommodation quarters. It's imperative we do that because we are coming from a low base.

The wealth of the industry determines how far we are prepared to push this. If a Farm is not profitable, then how can they warrant spending more money on wages or improving infrastructure for the people involved in the business?

But if they don't, the people will leave. Once again, we have to find a way.

And this is why kids left and went to the cities in the past. But that has now turned, and now those kids that left are returning to the Farm or rural areas to work, run or start businesses. How exciting is that?

As for Raleigh, he now has a great work ethic, loves the job he's in and gets paid way, way more than his stingy old man paid him. Perhaps, just perhaps, I would like to think I had a little bit to do with that. Anyway, we have a good laugh about it now.

End of message