Westpac ag study finds young women make the difference as next gen rises

The number of young females in the 25- to 34-year-old age group working in the farm sector has jumped 42 per cent in the past 17 years.

They now share equal representation in the industry with young men in the same age bracket, whose numbers have also risen.

Combined, they now hold a 31pc share of all jobs in the sector.

That's good news for an industry which has tended to struggle with new generation succession strategies and relies heavily on the 45 to 64 age group which makes up most of its workforce.

The growing young cohort of women and men entering agriculture, including recruits from more culturally diverse backgrounds, has now begun changing the look and capabilities of the rural workforce, according to Westpac Banking Corporation's agribusiness division.

Westpac has analysed recent census data to compile its latest intergenerational farming report on regional champions and changemakers.

It noted how a wave of generational change had delivered a 30pc increase in people aged between 25 and 29 in agricultural careers between 2006 and 2021.

Although women still only represented a third of this farm sector age bracket, their numbers were rising fast, and significantly, they represented nearly half of the bachelor degree qualified workers in the group - up from 44pc 15 years earlier.

Females with Certificate 3 and 4 trade qualifications were also up, suggesting women in this age category were generally now making significant contributions to the sector and taking on greater responsibilities.

Westpac's report noted there were roughly three times as many young women aged between 20 and 40 performing managerial roles in 2021 than in 2006, plus more in various technical, trade machinery and labouring related jobs.

The bank's regional and agribusiness general manager, Peta Ward, herself a relative newcomer to the industry's senior leadership ranks, said the findings indicated Australian agriculture was in a period of transformative change as an increasingly diverse generation joined in.

Women were finding opportunities in a broad array of professional roles on and off farms, including research and extension services, agronomy, sales, sustainability, and banking.

However, the report noted more could be done to fully realise their potential, particularly in the horticulture, lot feeding and dairy industries which typically had wide gender imbalances.

Meanwhile, the backgrounds of all those joining the sector were changing significantly, too.

More than half of all agriculture workers aged 20 to 39 had one or more parents born overseas.

That compared with just 20pc of those in the industry aged between 60 to 69, according to latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data from the 2021 census.

The report noted just as pre- and post-war European migration had transformed the farming industry in the past, immigration was again adding to its cultural tapestry today.

The importance of attracting and retaining more fresh talent was vital because until recently agriculture had suffered from a shortage of succession generation candidates and younger farm sector participants taking on leadership roles.

"Today we see far fewer workers aged between 35 and 59 than we did in 2006," Westpac's research reported.

While also noting the total number of Australian farms was shrinking, the landholdings remaining were bigger and more productive, and the nation's agricultural workforce size was relatively unchanged.

Ms Ward, who took up her current job last year after initially studying animal nutrition in the early 2000s before joining Westpac, said thankfully jobs in agriculture had never been more interesting, more diverse, and had broader appeal to a younger generation.

Their appeal was also enhanced by the fact many agribusiness roles may be in metropolitan or non-traditional regional settings, and employers everywhere were queuing up to offer positions to interested candidates.

"This is an exciting time for the industry and it's important we continue the momentum to fully realise this opportunity and agriculture's potential contribution to the economy," she said.

Gold Coast-based PhD candidate with the University of Tasmania's Institute of Agriculture, Rebekah Ash, couldn't agree more, also describing the industry's culture as "refreshingly authentic".

"We need to make sure kids coming through schools and others in the wider community understand ag's not just for people who have grown up on farms," she said.

"Let's share it in a way that we can make people who don't come from that background also feel comfortable and included."

Now working with landholders on greenhouse gas emissions mitigation and carbon sequestration initiatives, she said telling agriculture's positive stories, including its role in cutting carbon emissions, would play an important part in attracting others into the sector and enhancing its skills and workforce diversity.

The champions and changemakers report featured findings from a survey of 30-plus past and present participants in the Agrifutures Horizon Scholars Program, which highlighted how the sector's emerging leaders saw farming's opportunities and challenges.

The biggest opportunities appealing to the respondents included automation, next generation biology and chemistry, artificial intelligence, data capture and analytics.

Challenges included extreme weather and climate change, changing consumer and community expectations, retaining talent, natural resource degradation and the impact of farm sector consolidation on regional communities.

Westpac's Ms Ward conceded agriculture's frequent cycles of tough seasonal conditions and market downturns may undermine some of the optimism which blossomed in recent years, but said young generation recruits tended to talk about the industry as part of a longer term cycle, and the need to learn to live and adapt to drier conditions.

"I find they are excited about technology opportunities which can help farmers cope," she said.

"They're also talking about sustainability initiatives which can make farmers stronger when it comes to dealing with extreme weather events.

"We've been learning to farm the Australian environment for 200 years, and that can involve a lot of dust and flies, but we have to face into these challenges, making the most of good years and drier times."