We feel that future farmers, young or maybe not, will come from three main groups. First are those who are farming on a commercial scale and are building on a farm business that may have been started one, two, or even three generations ago. These people are likely to be producing generic commercial crops and livestock on an extensive basis.
The second group is what we tentatively call lifestyle farms, which are usually fairly small. These farmers produce specialty products and are doing some specialty niche marketing work. They probably can't sustain themselves, at least initially, on their own and have or will require some off-farm income. They may or may not transition into full-time farmers, depending on the success of their particular endeavours and their dedication to it.
Third are immigrant farmers. In Alberta, at least, they have been part of the renewal of the industry. Alberta Agriculture had a mission, which started in about 2002 and is still going on, somewhat, to attract Europeans, mainly, to Alberta.
We feel that the first group I talked about will be the major renewal of the industry. They are the large-scale farmers. There are some challenges for those farmers. Some of them are their traditional views on agriculture--farmers need to have a land base; they need to have equipment. The younger view, on the other hand, tends to be that I don't have to own all my own equipment. I can rent some land. I can lease. I can have some work done on a custom basis, which reduces the capital requirements quite significantly.
Another point that we find is very important for a young farmer, or any farmer, is that farmers tend to be very much hands-on people. As well as hands-on work, there is also business acumen and business assets that have to come into the business as far as financial planning, marketing, and planning other business ventures are concerned.
As I mentioned, the second group, the specialty farmers, may or may not transition into full-time farmers.
The third group includes farmers who have a good knowledge base. They may not be familiar with local customs and things, so usually business planning is an asset for them as well, so that they can deal with local lenders, learn business practices, and so forth.