A former Rathkeale College head boy and recent recipient of a Top Student Award at Lincoln University’s Food and Fibre Awards and Networking Dinner is enthusiastic about a career in agribusiness, despite the headwinds of an industry facing consistent pressures.
Archie Woodhouse told the Times-Age that while the farming sector is being under scrutiny for the “right and wrong reasons” – it is nothing new.
Nonetheless, Woodhouse acknowledges the importance of recruiting young people in a rapidly evolving industry. Nearing the end of his master’s degree, the recruitment issues have “reinforced that the industry is crying out for young people across the sector – from farmers to advisors to marketers.”
Meanwhile, methods of breaking into a lucrative industry predominately through family ties and inheritance, have slowly phased out as more young people from different backgrounds are choosing to study agribusiness.
“The growing need for farmer support services relies on young people who understand New Zealand farmers and farm systems, and I want to play a role in this,” Woodhouse said.
On the other hand, Woodhouse said it is a difficult time for young people to start their farming career – as he said there is nothing attractive about an industry with more unknowns and uncertainties than knowns.
“It’s the uncertainty that the current and next generation of farmers coming through face that is a big concern. This uncertainty around emission prices and low-slope definitions, coupled with turbulent financial times, means farmers are facing an uphill battle.”
However, Woodhouse believes young farmers stand in good stead.
“Without being cliché, these unknowns are an opportunity, and young farmers who are passionate, skilled and increasingly well-connected across the sector are the future of agriculture.”
Woodhouse said making government-enforced regulations imposed on farmers and food producers “farmer-centric” and “realistically workable” would be a huge step in the right direction.
“Over the last decade, farmers have quietly sunk their teeth into the change rules and requirements, such as stock exclusion, nitrogen caps and farm environmental plans. But as the conversation gets louder, and the government regulations and environmental standards become more restrictive and costly to achieve, there becomes a need to slow down and progress logically,” Woodhouse said.
“The rate of change and seemingly never-ending regulation is a real challenge that farmers face every day and will continue to going forward.”
Woodhouse said his penultimate goal is farming – in whatever capacity that may be – but he also hopes to explore options in the wider industry further down the line.
“Having grown up on a sheep and beef farm in Eketāhuna, I’ve always had a passion for the agriculture and agribusiness industries, and studying agriculture seemed a logical pathway to get my foot in the door,” Woodhouse said.
“But what I didn’t appreciate was the importance of networking and connections, something that is part and parcel of studying at Lincoln.”
