WE certainly live in a time of technological advancement. I shake my head sometimes at what has changed in only the past 20 years, and the changes keep on coming at a rapid pace.
This change has certainly brought efficiency gains for lots of regionally-based businesses - including farming businesses - such as the ever improving GPS technology, and the increasing quality of phone service, which has driven a large uptake in all sorts of cloud driven technology.
It could be argued improved phone coverage has had a larger impact than other technological advances.
With such advances, it's inevitable the need for staff is lessened.
The population in country areas has been on the decline for many years.
The pandemic/work from home phenomenon has redressed this to a small degree, but there is no doubt there are less people in the regions than there used to be.
This impacts on lots of areas - among them, the lower numbers of people available to volunteer for the various organisations.
Another area that has decreased resources generally is the banking sector.
This is across the board, as the drive for more efficiency continues it seems unabated.
I deal with banks regularly and can't run my business without them.
I have written previously about the need to have strong profitable banks. They can be the bedrock of the business world.
What I have observed is long-term agri-bankers are expected to do more with the same - or less - resources.
In some ways they are beating their heads against the compliance brick wall.
Some of them have left the industry, and others are biding their time until they can go fishing.
This specialist agri-knowledge void is hard to fill - the skill required for dealing with farmers and the nuances of the agri sector take time to learn.
Others may not agree with me, but my view is that agriculture is quite specialised.
Agri-banking is very much relationship oriented - it's the only way it can really work.
As anyone reading this column would know, trust and reputation are very important when dealing with country people, and these take time to develop.
A number of farming businesses these days are quite large and complex in nature.
This includes the asset mix, the ownership of the assets and the sometimes complex family relationships that wrap around them.
The skill and knowledge required to properly service these businesses has increased, and in some instances the relationship management skills are lacking.
Whether there is an appetite to address this, I don't know.
Most of these types of decisions are probably made in Melbourne or Sydney - a long way from rural Australia.
All any business can do is keep improving its service proposition and provide the products and services the customer wants.
There has to be a balance with this.
I think a non-negotiable should be the personal touch it takes to succeed in the country.
