Fewer and Far Between: Less people who are in agriculture have farming backgrounds

A Midwest cooperative says there is a big problem on the horizon as they are finding fewer graduates have a background in agriculture.

“That talent base that we are getting out of our universities continues to shrink, that talent pool continues to shrink, and I think one of the things that we’re seeing, too, is that the number of kids are coming off the farm that go to college and they are looking for a job in the industry, is getting fewer and far between. So finding that person who has on-farm knowledge, the basic understanding of how our farm works, is getting fewer and far between,” said Jason Weirich, the executive vice president of operations at MFA Incorporated.

Weirich says this has forced them to expand their talent pool. He tells aginfo.net that despite a lack of farming background, they still have many young people showing up with a desire to help America’s farmers and ranchers.

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