Will a Labor Crisis Push Innovation?

(Farm Journal)

A decade from now, we might look back at this era as the period that finally propelled innovation and integration of labor resource related technologies. The tremendous struggle businesses in every agriculture sector are facing will inevitably cause chain reactions. The pain of trying to retain quality human capital could ultimately force businesses to evolve just to survive the next 12 months. 

With costs climbing and inflation looming, can businesses justify infrastructure overhauls to find short- and long-term relief? Automation and machine labor are not cheap, but do they begin to pencil out over time as the nation’s workforce remains incentivized to stay at home? We cannot have resilient supply chains without predictable, dependable operations free from external influences.

We must assume as the pain of this labor crisis increases, businesses will begin to seek relief. Some will innovate internally; others will turn to outside expertise. Like all other periods of great scientific innovation, technologies that had never been conceived prior to now, will rise from unknown, unnamed brilliance. It had been sitting in someone’s mind like a seed in the ground waiting for conditions to be right — quietly unimagined until now.

I’m sure our minds drift toward innovations such as machine robotics and artificial intelligence systems. I think these will play a roll; however, we must also consider what other doors have been opened due to the pandemic. 

Digital business platforms have surged in the past year. We are finding new, efficient ways to complete the same tasks, like the recently developed app called AgButler. This mobile app helps connect employers and employees similar to using ride sharing technology like Uber. Find employees nearby, review their work quality ratings, and execute payment with a tap of the screen.  

Will animal resources, such as dogs and ranch horses, become more feasible than human capital moving forward? Any cattle producer who has worked around a great set of cattle dogs or a durable mount can attest to their value. They cost less to maintain as a unit and are always available.

As I see it, the real challenge doesn’t lie with the innovation and integration phase. To maintain operational integrity, businesses will evolve to achieve sustainable and resilient production levels, free from external influences. What worries me most is what will happen to our national workforce when they’re no longer needed. We might look back on the COVID-19 era, as a time of great forced innovation that also forever altered our industry and our country by eliminating jobs. There are always unintended consequences. 

Jared Wareham is the North American business development manager for ABS NuEra. He has been involved in the cattle industry for over two decades, in business development roles growing genetics-focused companies that service producers along the beef value chain by driving the integration of precision-based production.

 

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