Farmers are looking for quality over quantity when it comes to farm staff and that trend is set to continue into 2026, according to recruitment experts.
Gone are the days of large farms employing several farmhands and labourers and in are the days of the contractor.
The move has been driven by the cost of employing staff, with a simultaneous increase in the number of farm contractors available across the country.
DroverAg Agricultural Recruitment founder and director John Boote and his team worked with 2500-3000 farmer clients across Australia.
Mr Boote said instead of having a farm manager, a farm assistant and a farmhand, many of his clients were now opting to stick with the former and instead use farm contractors for annual heavy labour periods like fencing and lambing, for example.
He said the improvements in on-farm technology and innovation were also lessening the need for less qualified, purely labouring staff.
"Our clients are looking for quality over quantity with their staff," he said.
"They're happy to pay greater entitlements in order to get better quality people."
He said most farmers were now willing to pay these experienced, farm manager type staff more, but they weren't seeing the value of investing in staff still in need of training.
He said much of this was to do with the lack of state or federal government support for farmers to invest in trainees.
"There's no incentive for farmers to take these young people on," he said.
Mr Boote said instead of getting full-time jobs, young people looking to have a crack at farm work were now contracting, which had become a "lucrative" market.
However, overall, this was leaving a demographic hole in the industry, where less young people were being given solid career opportunities.
While farmers want farm manager level staff, the reality is individuals with that level of experience are few and far between.
Agri Talent managing director Kelli McDougall, Brisbane, said the industry was facing a labour deficit, particularly in middle management.
"It's very, very difficult though and I think we're in for a rough ride in agriculture, particularly in Queensland," she said.
Ms McDougall said if her company had 15 farm manager level people available, they'd all find a suitable job in Queensland immediately.
She said this middle management deficit had already existed, driven by the selling up of family farms 10 years ago, and young people, who would have traditionally inherited a farm, looking elsewhere for career opportunities.
While more young people are now developing careers in the industry, those with 5-10 years' experience are few and far between.
"There's a real gap in middle management in Australian agriculture," she said.
"We're now seeing that cliff in the middle management space."
Mr Boote said the last 3-4 months of 2025 saw a turnaround of sorts when it came to recruitment by farmers
"It's much better than where it was 12 months ago," he said.
"That was reflective of the terrible season southern Australia had."
He described farmers as having "gone to sleep", with recruitment almost ceasing altogether as they battled dry conditions.
However, a positive outlook around the season for 2026 and rising cattle and sheep prices was sending farmers back on the recruitment hunt.
"In the last 2-3 months, we've noticed a large increase again in farmers looking," Mr Boote said.
He said the agriculture industry wasn't doing enough to promote itself as a viable career avenue for non-farmers, but things were improving.
He said particularly post the COVID-19 pandemic, city slickers, quite often working in the trades, were seeing the potential in a life on the land.
They were seeking better work-life balance, and were noticing that oftentimes, farm work came with benefits such as on-site housing.
However, Mr Boote said when these types of workers realised a move to farming would mean their salary might go from $140,000-$180,000 to $70,000-$90,000, they weren't long about changing their minds.
Ms McDougall agreed that the industry wasn't selling itself well enough, or offering enough to draw in to non-farmers.
"I'd like to think it's improving but I still don't think there's enough awareness," she said.
"We don't market ourselves well."
She said the exception was in the agricultural start-up space, which was firing on all cylinders, and more and more non-farmers were being drawn to this area of agribusiness.
She said this was evident particularly for business development roles.
Interestingly, Ms McDougall felt the Brisbane Olympics in 2032 was set to pull labour and talent from Australia's agriculture industry.
She said the games, announced in 2021, would see a major pooling of labour to the construction industry over the coming years, with agriculture one of the industries to lose out.
She said skilled labourers would be attracted to the money to be made as part of the construction required for the Olympics, pulling them away from regional Australia.
Mr Boote didn't agree.
He felt the agriculture industry, particularly that of southern Australia, would continue to attract staff.
He said retention on farms was also improving, so once they got that experienced and skilled farm manager level talent, farmers were doing their best to keep them, more so than in years gone by.
"Our clients are also dangling bigger carrots now to not only attract talent but retain them as well," he said.
Both Mr Boote and Ms McDougall said agriculture would continue to be an employees' market in 2026, with the demand to fill vacancies ahead of the number of suitably experienced staff available.