The farming industry has long suffered a labour shortage, thanks to a decade of skilled farm workers being siphoned off by the mining industry and more attractive career options offered by other industries.

Thirty-year-old farmer Floyd Legge, who has worked on the land since age 17 and now runs the family property Ridgehaven Poll Dorset stud near Cudal, said farmers were “a diminishing population”.

Mr Legge said young people had to be the answer to the labour shortage because they had a whole working life to build up a career, opposed to an older person who may only have 15 years.

“There is a perception out there that it’s not a good industry to go into, that it is a dying industry ... the actual cost of setting up a farm from square one can be quite large too,” Mr Legge said.

He said the agriculture industry as a whole needed to push a message of a myriad of career options to attract more people to take up jobs.

“They need to be putting a really strong message out there about why agriculture is a very attractive career path. Land management, animal management, there’s vast opportunities,” he said.

“[They should be] highlighting the vast array of things attached to agriculture like the science and technology areas and innovation and research.”

Charles Sturt University agriculture lecturer Ed Henry, who is based in Orange, said there was a shortage of tertiary-trained people in agriculture and agribusiness.

Anecdotally, Mr Henry said he had noticed the number of young people interested in farming had picked up over the past five years, but said it had not yet translated into filling job vacancies.

“There is a shortage of tertiary-trained people, from vets through to farm managers, people are needed for banks, chemical companies and consultancy companies,” Mr Henry said.

“It’s because not too many people are being trained at the moment and there has been a big growth in demand.”

alexandra.king@fairfaxmedia.com.au