Comment: Our industry has been built on farmers challenging the norm, looking at the problems and creating the solutions, writes Federated Farmers Dairy Industry Group Chair Chris Lewis.
If you don't question and challenge the status quo, how do you know what you're getting is the best it can be?
In the last month or so, reports of my comments on the $100 million per year of agriculture levies, and their value to farmers, has drawn feedback from some involved in levy bodies.
Some have said I should know what value there is, as I'm exposed to a lot of contact as an elected Federated Farmers leader.
True, but my role is to ask the questions on behalf of members.
Other have said I should keep my questions private. Many years ago, I used to get defensive about Feds; it's a natural thing to do, when you are working hard in a volunteer role for farmers. But now I welcome farmers' questions on value and what difference we make.
Read more from Federated Farmers here.
It's awesome they bother to ask. It gives me a chance to point out some aspects of stuff we do that they might not be aware of, and quite likely they've got some feedback that will help us do even better.
Like the levy organisations, we have a huge amount of work on the go. We do our best to communicate about our activities, but as farmers we get so much information thrown at us, it's near impossible to keep up and read it all.
Quite a few levy organisation staff and directors spoke to me on the subject, and like me took it as an opportunity to open up conversations and take on useful feedback. For me, that was the perfect response to my questions on the value of your levies.
Our industry and export prowess have been built on farmers challenging the norm, looking at the problems and creating the solutions.
With farmers feeling under pressure with calving/lambing underway, and any number of pressing issues and proposed new government regulations, it's vital our farmers are engaged.
When they're closely involved, they own the issues/problems and lead the charge to better ways of doing things.
Genuine engagement comes about by questioning things, debating the issues in a constructive way, and getting yourself to meetings and workshops. The issues cannot be solved by a few staff and industry leaders signing up to stuff.
We all need to provide platforms for farmer engagement. At Feds, we have district and regional meetings for farmers to attend. We run robust social media where people can have their say.
We email members with advisories and pesky surveys – some would say too often, but it's hard to find the right balance for everyone.
Our valued farmer elected leaders relay ideas, opinions and yes, criticisms, direct from the farms and the rural communities where they have daily interaction.
Also, a lot of our staff are farmers. They live and breathe it too!
Farmer buy-in is crucial. If it doesn't happen, useful outcomes from any decisions or changes is slow. The public/stakeholders get disappointed. And it's vital to leadership.
If you're the general in an army, you want to make sure the soldiers are with you, because if they aren't, battles get lost very quickly!
My message with any organisation you're involved with, particularly one you help pay for, is to extract the value you deserve by getting involved and asking the hard questions if necessary.
The more who do, the more effective the organisation will be.