Encourage Farm Youth to Attend Ag School

People at meetings or conventions often ask each other where they went to school. The world of agriculture is very small. People are tied by their home province, their favourite hockey team or the university or college they attended. But there is an issue developing that should be a concern to all Canadians, not just aggies: Enrollment at agricultural schools in Canada is dropping fast.

Lethbridge College’s enrollment, for example, is down 50 per cent from 1998 levels. Lethbridge and most other ag schools are trying to devise action plans to stop the bleeding. The first question to answer is why is this happening? The next question is how can we make post-secondary agricultural programs sustainable?

To get a better understanding of this compounding issue I talked to Dan Pennock, associate dean at the College of Agriculture and Bio Resources, University of Saskatchewan; Danny Leroy, associate professor of agricultural economics at the University of Lethbridge; and Byrne Cook, animal science instructor at Lethbridge College. It was astounding how all three men had similar opinions on the causes.

Students don’t see agriculture as lucrative

It is no secret that other industries have scooped many potential agriculture students. Students that used to attend ag programs are now enrolling in land reclamation and environmental science programs. These other programs attract the same practical minded students that ag colleges tend to attract.  “I still see a lot of Wrangler jeans in the hallways but they are all going into the environmental science classes. They used to come into my classroom,” says Byrne Cook.

Many jobs are available for students from ag programs, but they aren’t getting filled. I heard many discussions in the hallways of meetings regarding the amount of concern over the lack of people going into plant breeding, large animal veterinary science and agricultural research.

“There is a growing perception that there are more lucrative opportunities than being involved in agriculture,” says Danny Leroy. “There are a lot of other opportunities out there right now for 19-year-old kids.”

Dan Pennock agreed and took it even further. “There is a perception among our youth that agriculture has no future,” he says.

With the recently found synergies between agriculture and energy you’d think these perceptions would be going away, not getting stronger. I guess this proves that change can take time and reality is not always obvious.

Students see agriculture as “farming”

Much has changed since my grandfather attended Olds College in the ’30s. Back then agriculture was farming and the minority of people were working at jobs outside of primary agriculture. Now we have far fewer farms, the influx of  biotechnology and globalization of agriculture.  But students don’t see agriculture as an exciting new science with increasingly diverse opportunities. They still see agriculture as farming.

“Many potential students still associate agriculture with going back to the family farm, and the reality is that there are lots of jobs off of the farm in agriculture right now,” says Cook.

The misconception that agriculture equals farming hurts enrollment, says Leroy.

When you examine the career paths of graduating Lethbridge College students, only one-third return to the farm. Another one third go on to a post-diploma program at a university, and one-third find employment in the industry but not on the farm.

Agriculture is now much more than sitting on a tractor or sorting cattle. Agriculture is very complex and challenging for any bright young student. It has many  tributaries and tentacles that can take you far away from the farm.

Changing perceptions

I asked Pennock what can be done to change perceptions and improve enrollment. “We must be innovative to target populations that have traditionally not come to our college,” he says. This is very evident in the name change to the University of Saskatchewan College of Agriculture and Bio-Resources. Lethbridge College is currently trying to come up with new programs and classes in order to stabilize the enrollment numbers. It has developed programs to tie into CASS (Canadian Agricultural Skills Service), the federal program that allows lower income agricultural producers to get further training.

You’ve heard the joke that parents who encourage their kids to return to the farm should be charged with child abuse. It seems that this joke has come to fruition as our youth are shying away from the farm and agriculture altogether and testing the waters of the oil patch and other industries.

At the end of my discussion with Byrne Cook he said something that I thought provided some hope for attracting students to ag programs. “There are a lot of scholarships available in agriculture in comparison to other disciplines.” All of us should make more effort to promote these scholarships. As agriculturalists we must band together and recruit the youth of today to either remain with or to join our industry. We must encourage the youth to enter vet schools or become plant breeders or obtain Certified Crop Advisor accreditations or study apiculture or get a PhD in agriculture or return to the family farm. That is how our agricultural schools are going to flourish along with our industry.

Shaun Haney is the manager of strategy development and quality systems with Haney Farms in Picture Butte, Alta. Call him toll free at 1-877-738-4517 or e-mail him at shaney@haneyfarms.com.