Gurus, experts and revolutionaries.....

[CopperBeech]

Something I’ve noticed....... there seem to be a lot of people in AG who seem to pass themselves off / promote themselves as people in the know, industry experts, gurus. Generally this seems to be reinforced through social media, forums like this etc. People will tell other people that these folk are the ones in the know, the ones to speak to, but only so far as I can tell because they have seen them self promote on the internet. I seem to meet a lot of folk like this, who in the real world are extremely disappointing, and yet sit back and watch plenty of folk who I mostly respect in some way, tell all and sundry that x person is an expert . Has this always happened or is this a new thing?

 

[Al R]

Having met a few - literally only a handful most were disappointing and had little actual real experience in different scenario’s except for their own. A grass expert that said lock everything up for a minimum of 120 days, 42 days is long enough for me as a maximum.

 

[Chae1]

@Clive

@Kiwi Pete

Immediately spring to mind.

 

[Red dogs]

As the old saying goes, those who can do, those who can’t teach you how to do it!!

 

[Farmer Fin]

It’s the guys who have failed miserably at farming then pop up as consultants that gets me.

 

[roscoe erf]

@Clive

@Kiwi Pete

Immediately spring to mind.

to your mind maybe

 

[CopperBeech]

There’s deffo a couple on here

 

[No wot]

If you can talk with passion and plenty of confidence and sound like you totally believe in what you're saying even if it is a load of boll##ks, then there's plenty of suckers queuing up to take it all in , oh , and don't forget to add that you are a "consultant" or"adviser or both

 

[JSmith]

It’s the guys who have failed miserably at farming then pop up as consultants that gets me.

Red tractor inspector, that’s a favourite job for a failed farmer!! Come an tell you where your going wrong an what you should be doing!!!

 

[unlacedgecko]

If you can talk with passion and plenty of confidence and sound like you totally believe in what you're saying even if it is a load of boll##ks, then there's plenty of suckers queuing up to take it all in , oh , and don't forget to add that you are a "consultant" or"adviser or both

Having failed as a contract shepherd and then failed again as an actual sheep farmer, the only avenue left open to me is "internet guru".

PM me now to arrange a visit to your farm so I can tell you what you're doing wrong (everything). Then pay extra for me to regurgitate half baked theories and 3rd hand knowledge I'll pass off as my own.

 

[taff]

There are also a lot of people who host farm walks or ahdb monitor farm meeting (pretty much anyone involved with them in my experience) who talk as if there system is the only one that works and everyone else is below them. I find it’s important to listen and talk to the old farmer before they retire as they generally have a more level and and fair outlook they have also usually seen it all before

 

[Tomo23]

Red tractor inspector, that’s a favourite job for a failed farmer!! Come an tell you where your going wrong an what you should be doing!!!

Add corn rep to that list. Most round here are failed farmers. Rep at work has that much of a hold, I call him farm manager.

 

[br jones]

Consultants = failed managers

 

[andyt87]

Plenty of people looking for a messiah as well. And we all know what Monty Python thought about them

 

[Paddington]

When we used to keep breeding pigs we'd have people approach us for advice on buying a couple of weaners. We would show them around, happy to help, they would make lots of notes We never charged anything, with only a few years experience we certainly couldn't call ourselves experts. A few months later adverts would appear for pig keeping courses, £50/£100 a day run by experienced and successful pig owners, the same people we had "taught".
My old boss used to say an expert was someone who was one page ahead of you in reading the manual or could punch the buttons on a control panel faster than you, often at random, to give the required result.

 

[Stuart J]

Theres also an awful lot of good advisors, consultants and gurus.

Many that have got to that point despite not having had the opportunity so many of us had of being born into farming.