Wheat deregulation is a classic example, not to mention free trade. How long will it take before you people wake up?

In the wheat industry we export 70pc of what we produce but the major parties have handed our crop to the multi nationals. I did not hear a peep out of Ben and President Crombie (at the NFF).

Who would want their children to go into farming to battle the elements and Governments who seem to get a fiendish delight in making things more difficult. Why not encourage the young ones to take up city occupations where double good incomes ensure a good standard of living.

I bet young Ben Fargher would be in no hurry to vacate Canberra and head out west to grow wheat, for instance.

Good luck trying to convince them to move to the country when all the doom and gloom in the media is shaking people out of agriculture.

Having your cake and eating it too.

Do farmers want a university graduate (limited practical experience) or a college level graduate where real life farming skills and theory are taught.

It has been my experience that there are limited opportunities for university graduates, and the situation isn’t improving with the various state DPI's and CSIRO making substantial cuts to staff levels.

I think there is a reasonable expectation that after attending university for four years that the salary will at least be comparable to what other university graduates receive.

Working in agriculture usually involves the acquisition of a raft of skills and qualifications over many years, which is often substantially more than many other tertiary level qualifications.

Prior to starting my studies, I spoke with a number of previous graduates from the university I attended, mainly to find out what they thought of the university. What was surprising was that all four people that I had spoken to were no longer employed in agriculture - most had taken positions in finance or IT.

Similarly, most of the people I studied with have also left agriculture/horticulture.

I recently attended a conference and became aware that a number of the people presenting on various issues specifically relating to agriculture and horticulture were in fact environmental degree graduates.

I think there will always be issues attracting and retaining people in agriculture unless significant changes are made.

Mr Fargher you had me at "tangibly". Seriously, lines like "Make a real difference to world hunger" don't work to butter up or disguise the realities of a decision which will profoundly affect the future life of any year 12 student considering any degree, so i think the powers that be need to fire their consultant psychologists and get some new ones to more correctly tell 'em how the people think.

Andy makes some good points on this issue also, in agriculture it often takes more than a degree to know what your are doing. Will the corporates be able to keep finding people with the skills and willingness to leave a comfortable city life to run their irrigation and cropping agendas?

When they are done squeezing out all of the smaller operators with help from all their mates including politicians, Colesworths and U.S. grain traders will the unemployed all go work for them and use their hard earned experience, knowledge, research and skills to help the people who forced them out?

You may be able to quickly teach both graduates and pacific islanders how to use a chainsaw to prune an almond but do they know how to run a cropping program?

So transparent is the NFF and all sides of politics lately, no matter how much flouride they put in our water we can still see it, they all work for the same fellers, where do i sign.