Does mentorship make better farmers?

What is mentorship for farmers?

Having benefited from several mentors, particularly after returning from maternity leave, and making it the topic of her Nuffield Farming Scholarship, Helen Wyman was keen to point out farm mentorship is not just about older farmers mentoring the young.

She described a mentor as: “Someone who wants somebody else to succeed and they’re doing it not for their own ego. The mentee brings a lot to the table. The mentor learns as well as the mentee, so [are] willing to go on that journey with people and not tunnel visioned in what that mentee needs to get to.”

George Holmes agreed, seeing listening and asking questions as central to good mentoring: “You want your mentee to come to their own decision and conclusion, and you're helping support that by getting them to see the options and opportunities to find their own solutions.”

George also described his experience of informal mentor support, through farmer discussion groups and the relationship he has with his son on the farm: “I'm there as a mentor for him, …. although occasionally, I have to say his experience in some areas can be mentorship for me.”

He also believes he gained from informal mentors during his MBA studies: “Some of the people I was with on my course had significant business experience, particularly one guy who was a marketeer. I learned an awful lot from him rather than just from the lectures.”

In short, there’s no hierarchy in mentorship.

How mentoring can support farm succession planning

Describing a case study from her business, Helen suggested mentorship can support farmers involved with farm succession planning. Connecting with a mentor outside agriculture, without any emotional involvement, was vital to one farmer’s situation, as he grappled with whether to continue the family farm:

“It's just allowed him the clarity of thought and space. There's no judgment in that relationship. It's purely wanting to support.”

Could mentoring stop dairy farmers leaving the industry?

Having recently completed his MBA, George believes mentoring could play a role in the future of dairy farming. His studies included research into why dairy farmers leave the industry, with a lack of control and limited autonomy, plus the associated stresses they bring, featuring highly.

“You had to have initiatives that would focus on problem solving and goal setting because they are associated with lower levels of stress. And that's taking us back to mentoring and the discussion groups and all of that type of thing. So, there's a really strong link between this mentoring and helping farmers to continue dairy farming.”

How common is mentorship for farmers?

Helen and George both agreed mentoring comes in many forms.

Helen commented: “I think it's more common than we think, and I just don't think it's been given a name, but we touched on it, the different types of formal and informal mentorship, and I feel they have slightly different roles.”

She described informal mentorship as involving people you know, discussion group members or others within that community. In contrast, she believes more formal mentorship occurs outside those “echo chambers”, suggesting “you have to be in the right place to want to go and do it, to take that step and move forward and to look at different things.”

She’d also like to overcome the perception she’s heard of farm mentoring being a sign of failure: “It’s a positive and a proactive thing to do for you and your business.”

The last word on mentoring:

“Talking and sharing and not taking the burden alone is incredibly important to be successful in farming and for good mental health. I think I've had a successful career in farming, and I couldn't have done that without many mentors who supported me along the way.” George Holmes                                                                                      

“We go down the road of connecting [them] with somebody that isn't emotionally associated with themselves, giving them the freedom to talk openly and have a sounding board, and just that clarity of thought.” Helen Wyman                                                      

Peter’s showstoppers

1. Mentoring doesn’t have to be formal; it can be informal too
2. Mentoring is a mutually beneficial experience and more about attitude than age and experience
3. Whether mentor or mentee, be ready to ask questions and listen to the answers

Bonus Content: The power of mentorship in farming’s future

In this Farming Focus™ bonus episode, Dorset dairy farmer George Holmes explains why he believes mentorship can help overcome the isolation of farming and TwoCan Mentor founder Helen Wyman outlines why looking for a mentor outside the industry is a strength.

Farmers thrive on connecting with others – whether through discussion groups, meeting at Shows or catching up at the local market. But Helen Wyman thinks mentorship can take this further by creating “a massive professional community that sits around farming.”

Having identified farmers felt isolated and unsupported through his MBA research, this rings true for George Holmes too: “They could really benefit immensely from a mentorship relationship. People without that mentorship struggle to stay in the industry.”

Feeling less capable than other farmers was also a trait he identified and reiterated the importance of the two-way nature of mentorship, discussed in the previous episode, Does mentorship make better farmers?

“Being involved in mentorship, can help you with those issues. I think you will learn that it's very much a two-way thing. And you will realise that actually you will have skills that this person who's mentoring you doesn't have. And that helps to build your confidence as you work together.”

The benefit of connecting

Peer comparison may seem strange in an industry also struggling with isolation, but George suggested that’s exactly why: “I think it happens when you have that lack of connection and lack of talking to each other. If they're not confident, they always feel somebody's doing things better than them.

“And actually, when you talk to other farmers, they're usually pretty open in telling you where they've gone wrong as well as where things have gone right.”

George also described how he’d benefited from connecting with a non-farming mentor:

“I would regard the person who entered the contract farming relationship with me was probably one of my mentors. The mentoring was a different area, but we started working together, and then he asked me to get involved to help him really, because he was unsure about the farming side. I see him as a mentor on the business side.”

Attracting new talent into farming through mentorship

Mentorship could also attract new talent into the industry, according to George: “Building those relationships is what could make the opportunities, and it could be an opportunity for an older farmer who recognises through what he's done through mentoring that actually he wants to pass his business on to a younger person, and it doesn't have to be the son or daughter.”

Making time for mentorship to support a resilient future

With so many demands on farmers each day, time is at a premium, but Helen stressed the importance of making time to connect with others: “They're the people who need a mentor, basically, because you need to find time.”

Looking to the future, she added: “I'd like to see a culture of collaboration rather than competition. I'd like to see mentorship being viewed in the same way as the advice from accountants or land agencies. It's just one of the things you need as a leader in this industry.”

Collaboration is vital to George too: “Working together is such a strong opportunity for the whole of our agriculture industry. It's what can make us much stronger.”

 

Listen to the full episode at https://www.cornishmutual.co.uk/news-advice/farming-focus-podcast/ - also available via Spotify and Apple podcasts.