NAEDA Releases 3rd Annual Workforce Development Survey

Dec 01, 2022

Kansas City, Mo. — Workforce development has become an increasingly important topic for the farm equipment industry in recent years. While a lot of attention has been given to the challenge of finding and retaining qualified service technicians, the workforce development issue is much larger than that. Developing employees to fill future senior and mid-level management and leadership roles is a challenge for dealers.

For the past two years, NAEDA has conducted a workforce development survey to gauge the extent of the challenge and to determine where the pain points are. The survey also addressed the type of training that is preferred, and the training topics that need to be addressed in creating a high-performing dealership. NAEDA is pleased to announce the 2022 survey is now available and we are asking dealers once again to provide us with their input.

"As we look across the landscape of our dealer channels, we see because of consolidation, as well as growth, retirement, the evolution of the business, new customer demands and a variety of other things, having the right people doing the right job is vital to our success,” says Michael Piercy, vice president of dealer development with NAEDA’s Dealer Institute. “And I would go a little further and say today, it’s not just having the right person doing the right job, it’s also making sure the right person has access to the right training to do the job right.”

For the second consecutive year, NAEDA is partnering with Farm Equipment Magazine on the distribution of the survey. NAEDA is also working with Texas Christian University (TCU) on the tabulation of the results. The survey is arranged in 5 parts: Overall training needs; a dealership’s financial commitment to workforce development; specific technical and people skills training topics; demographic information and an opportunity for survey participants to provide comments on their workforce development challenges.

The survey can be accessed through this link. Results of the survey will be made available in early 2023.

Source : Farm Equipment

Video: From Conventional to Regenerative: Will Groeneveld’s Journey Back to the Land

"You realize you've got a pretty finite number of years to do this. If you ever want to try something new, you better do it."

That mindset helped Will Groeneveld take a bold turn on his Alberta grain farm. A lifelong farmer, Will had never heard of regenerative agriculture until 2018, when he attended a seminar by Kevin Elmy that shifted his worldview. What began as curiosity quickly turned into a deep exploration of how biology—not just chemistry—shapes the health of our soils, crops and ecosystems.

In this video, Will candidly reflects on his family’s farming history, how the operation evolved from a traditional mixed farm to grain-only, and how the desire to improve the land pushed him to invite livestock back into the rotation—without owning a single cow.

Today, through creative partnerships and a commitment to the five principles of regenerative agriculture, Will is reintroducing diversity, building soil health and extending living roots in the ground for as much of the year as possible. Whether it’s through intercropping, zero tillage (which he’s practiced since the 1980s) or managing forage for visiting cattle, Will’s approach is a testament to continuous learning and a willingness to challenge old norms.

Will is a participant in the Regenerative Agriculture Lab (RAL), a social innovation process bringing together producers, researchers, retailers and others to co-create a resilient regenerative agriculture system in Alberta. His story highlights both the potential and humility required to farm with nature, not against it.