What shall we do with the poor old farmer?

We make him happy.

We should give him and his successors an inspirational view of the future and a win-win-win-win-situation!

Happy farmers

Here in Holland a lot of old and sometimes poor farmers have difficulties in finding motivated successors. Farmer children look for city jobs with more income, more status and more future security.

Although farming could be one of the most satisfying jobs in the world! It's a matter of organising and some innovation too.

What does a farmer really want? If I would be a farmer I would like to have all advantages of an office job plus independency, animals en sunshine. I would like to

1. be my own boss
2. work with and take care of my animals, my cows, pigs, goats, kangaroos, ...
3. use my brain as well as my hands
4. devise strategies and tactics for my farm and perform them as good as I can
5. enjoy sun, rain and earth

But what is the farmer actually doing? He is buzy with

1. paper work
2. multifold repetition of the same operation every day again
3. making appointments (veterinarian, milk transporter etc)

So let the machines do what they do best i.e. routine work and let the farmer do what he does best i.e. taking care, being creative, enjoying life.

The routine work is milking, feeding, health checking, contacting the veterinarian (can also easily be automated), milk pasteurizing (yes, why not a micro diary at every farm?), milk transport to the local supermarket (some market innovation), insemination (is already automated), etcetera. All this can be done by relative simple machines we already use in other branches as security, flower handling etc.

The farmer then has time to take care of every cattle, to make them happy (also good for productivity), to see rare behavior of his cattle, to check on rare deseases, and of course to think about strategies and innovation in order to make the farm an even better place for farmer and cattle.

The first thing to do is asking the farmer about the work he wants to get rid of and supply him with the corresponding machines. The result will be a much more productive farm, a much more innovative farm and much happier famer and happier cattle. Which is good for the consumers, the economy, the farmer and the cattle.

We've reached a win-win-win-win situation.