The Farm Whisperer

One of the hot topics today is maintaining the family farm along with developing new, young farmers. That is the topic of a new book out now by author and consultant, David Specht.

SPECHT: In my consulting business I'm very limited in the number of families that I can help and that was somewhat frustrating to me and I didn't see a good solution to that so I thought a book might be one way to reach more people and at least get people started and then use local resources to help them the rest of the way.

The Farm Whisperer is a collection of writings from things that have come up over the last few years in Speech's business.

SPECHT: I just try to tackle some of the most challenging issues that come about in generational transitions and try to do it in story format. This can be a pretty boring topic. It can also be pretty daunting to a lot of people. The style that I used was to try to have some fun with it, make it kind of visual with some of the pictures and then at the end of each chapter I give them an inspired question and a place to write down their personal reflections and then to make a commitment to do something.

The easiest way to pick up a copy of the Farm Whisperer is through Amazon. Speech talks about keeping the family farm going.

SPECHT: There's a number of things that have to happen. I believe the first is that we need to be focused on raising a generation or owners and i the chapter, FFA-'Forever Farmhands of America' we don't want that to happen. Too often I'm seeing that the next generation is essentially a hired hand.

And that's Washington Ag Today. I'm Greg Martin, thanks for listening on the Ag Information Network of the West.