Dairy Farming
Retention of people in dairy farming – what is working and why?
Executive Summary and Case Studies
Dr Ruth Nettle, Augusto Semmelroth, Dr Rebecca Ford (University of Melbourne)
Dr Connie Zheng, Aman Ullah (Deakin University)
Gardiner Foundation
August 2011
Executive summary
The sustainability of dairy farming relies on people wanting to work or invest in dairying over time. How willing people are to work or invest will change over time and depends on the relative attractiveness of dairying in terms of work and wealth creation. Dairy farming in Australia is shifting from an equity-based industry to a labour-based industry with a trend to concentration of farm ownership on fewer and larger farms, with a reliance on a paid workforce. To maintain or grow dairying therefore requires an understanding of how well dairying attracts, retains and develops its workforce.
This research places the focus on the retention of people in the dairy farming workforce. Once people enter into dairy farming, how well are they retained? What influences this and are there emerging issues for future farm workforce needs? How well people are retained contributes to business profitability (turnover is a direct cost to farm businesses); the supply of skills for current and future needs (people who are retained on farms or in the industry are gaining experience and skills for future demand); and, there is a greater return on investment from training or attraction initiatives.
Retaining people in dairy farming has received limited attention from research, particularly the link between the on-farm practices that support retention and the between-farm support mechanisms that provide career pathways in regions or in the industry.
This research sought to address some of these gaps by studying how people are retained in dairy farming. This is an essential area of work in the people strategy for industry sustainability (Dairy Moving Forward, 2010). The research represents
Executive Summary and Case Studies
Dr Ruth Nettle, Augusto Semmelroth, Dr Rebecca Ford (University of Melbourne)
Dr Connie Zheng, Aman Ullah (Deakin University)
Gardiner Foundation
August 2011
Executive summary
The sustainability of dairy farming relies on people wanting to work or invest in dairying over time. How willing people are to work or invest will change over time and depends on the relative attractiveness of dairying in terms of work and wealth creation. Dairy farming in Australia is shifting from an equity-based industry to a labour-based industry with a trend to concentration of farm ownership on fewer and larger farms, with a reliance on a paid workforce. To maintain or grow dairying therefore requires an understanding of how well dairying attracts, retains and develops its workforce.
This research places the focus on the retention of people in the dairy farming workforce. Once people enter into dairy farming, how well are they retained? What influences this and are there emerging issues for future farm workforce needs? How well people are retained contributes to business profitability (turnover is a direct cost to farm businesses); the supply of skills for current and future needs (people who are retained on farms or in the industry are gaining experience and skills for future demand); and, there is a greater return on investment from training or attraction initiatives.
Retaining people in dairy farming has received limited attention from research, particularly the link between the on-farm practices that support retention and the between-farm support mechanisms that provide career pathways in regions or in the industry.
This research sought to address some of these gaps by studying how people are retained in dairy farming. This is an essential area of work in the people strategy for industry sustainability (Dairy Moving Forward, 2010). The research represents