'We're not just sitting on tractors anymore'

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'We're not just sitting on tractors anymore'

AGRICULTURE: Farmers aiming to build their businesses find themselves stymied by a shortage of skilled workers, so it’s time they widened their search to recruit tech- savvy people with transferable skills, says agribusiness exec Wes Thompson

By DEBORA VAN BRENK, The London Free Press

Last Updated: February 29, 2012 8:51pm
Hayseeds need not apply.

Farm businesses scouting for solid employees should be recruiting flexible, tech-savvy workers who don't have traditional agricultural backgrounds.

That's the word from Wes Thompson, whose Blenheim-based seed company of 300 employees is one of the pre-$eminent ag employers in Southwestern Ontario.

"Regardless of how good your physical assets are, you'll never enjoy success without good employees," Thompson told a group of cutting-edge agriculturalists at a conference in London of the Innovative Farmers Association of Ontario.

"I think, at the moment, there's a shortage in agriculture of bright young minds, and we're all scrambling after them," he said.

Many farmers who want to build their businesses find themselves stymied by a shortage of willing and capable skilled workers: rural specialists are all snapped up and urbanites aren't interested.

Thompson said employers might instead want to look beyond traditional ag circles and start recruiting people with transferable skills and an affinity for the countryside..........http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/2012 ... 43246.html