Bringing innovative technologies, resources and collaboration to farmers’ kitchen table
Winnipeg, MANITOBA — Imagine a world where livestock producers have all the expertise and resources they need for decision making right at the farmhouse kitchen table.
This is a concept rapidly gaining steam as animal agriculture evolves to meet heightened demands in the wake, not only of a global pandemic, but of many fundamental changes over the past decade — from new rules and regulations to higher transparency and sustainability expectations, along with shifting consumer preferences.
As innovative new models rise to the forefront to help producers make a successful transition to the future, many of those gaining popularity feature a greater emphasis on cutting-edge science, strategies and technologies, streamlined operations approaches and enhanced collaboration at all levels. But perhaps most significant is a much stronger focus on the farm itself as the foundation of opportunity and — coupled with this — a return to the farmers’ kitchen table, whether in person or virtual, as the place where the important conversations and decisions take place.
“The farm remains the heart of where value is created in agriculture,” says J. Neil Dobson, co-founder of FarmHouse Consultants Inc., a newly launched Manitoba-based company on the front line of advancing this concept. “We have been reminded of this during the pandemic as people appreciate more than ever the value of a reliable, high-quality food supply. Yet somewhere along the way many of the conversations and decisions in agriculture got shifted away from the primary producer. They took place at the corporate boardroom table rather than the farm’s kitchen table. We’re seeing a big push now among many farmers to reverse that.”