Farming by the book: Plenty of rewards for young farmers, says author

This uncommon approach to thinking about life on the land comes from one who has been there, done it and written a book about it.

Known as the Farming Coach, Chris Morrison has funnelled more than 35 years' experience helping farmers and business owners into his new book, "Thrive: How to Succeed as a Young Aspiring Farmer".

The book is a practical guide for new and established farmers on how to successfully start, maintain and grow their agriculture business.

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Drawing upon decades of experience in farming, education and working with business clients, Mr Morrison says there is a bright future ahead for those farmers who are willing to learn and embrace change with creative problem solving.

"Farmers must spend more time thinking and planning to be better at business. Successful farmers are always looking for better ways to do things," Mr Morrison writes.

While not delving into the details of how to calibrate a spray rig or the livestock management, the book focuses on more of the preferred "soft skills" for running an agricultural operation.

One example is Mr Morrison's recommendation that producers undertake some form of meditation; although he points out that doesn't mean reciting a mantra on the side of mountain in the Himalayas.

"To develop the ability to think and establish a higher level of self-awareness farmers should practice meditation," Mr Morrison writes.

"Just deliberately take time out in a quiet place to think, reflect and contemplate potential future options for yourself, your business and your family.

"Meditation is being taken up by CEO's and other business leader to increase their mental capacity to lead and manage.

"There are many ways to practice meditation and it's easy to learn how to do it. Meditation is like most things, the more you practice the better you become at it."

One of the big things Mr Morrison focuses on is tackling adversity.

"If you want to succeed in business - in any business - you have to be a problem solver but some problems can't be solved and you need to work around them," he said.

"It's really important to understand the best way to succeed is if you have the ability to hang in there."

He said the current drought was one of the biggest deterrents to people considering a career in agriculture.

"If you've got really good plans and put money away for a rainy day - or a dry day - you can do well," he said.

Mr Morrison said young farmers needed to make use of support services.

"It's a lot about empowering people to look after their mental health and use the strong support systems in place," he said.

Mr Morrison said there were "amazing opportunities" to enter agriculture over the next decade as the current demographic of farmers aged and retired. He said a lot of people graduate into a different career before moving back onto a farm, and many skills not normally used in farming become relevant.

The book has taken two years to write and he hopes it will encourage those to aspire and adapt to the new and emerging opportunities in agriculture.

"Embracing the change in all things, technology and advances in plant breeding... are going to be really important because the speed of that stuff is just increasing exponentially."

The book pushes readers to:

The book also contains examples and exercises, while providing readers with the framework needed to turn a passion for farming into a thriving business.

Thrive is available for $24.95.