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What are young farmers doing to set their futures on the farm in motion?

Gustavo Boscoli, the 28 year old co-principal of Bragan莽a Agroneg贸cios, a crop and livestock operation in Mato Grosso, Brazil, can tell you. Better yet, follow him @gustavo_boscoli on Instagram and he can show you.

First thing you鈥檒l notice is his farm technology. Monster machines鈥攆rom his extra-large pickup to fleets of massive cultivators, tractors, harvesters, and haulers鈥攄ominate Boscoli鈥檚 feed. Which makes sense, because the next thing you鈥檒l notice is that his fields of soybeans, corn, rice, and sorghum seemingly cover the planet.

Scores of photos don鈥檛 tell the whole story, however. The fields of Bragan莽a Agroneg贸cios may be as gold and the skies as blue as they were when Boscoli鈥檚 father and grandfather were leading the operation, but this Boscoli is a new breed of young farmer. He and the rest of the social-first generation are transforming not only food production but our relationship to it.

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A focus on ROI

In taking over the family farm from his father, who died in 2018, Boscoli differs from Gen Z, who are more likely to leave the family farm than run it. Many young Brazilians who grew up farming have moved to metropolitan areas or the US and Europe because they want to experience a different lifestyle. Those who do come back to the farm often return with a PhD or an MBA because they feel they need more business knowledge to succeed.

Boscoli doesn鈥檛 have a degree in agronomy and doesn鈥檛 plan on pursuing an MBA. But his outlook is that of a businessman. 鈥淓very day I wake up and think, how do I produce more? How can I produce more income, more return on investment? It鈥檚 not just financial, this pressure: how will I feed the world?鈥�

Gen Z farmers are different kinds of customers. Rather than look to their fathers鈥� brands for solutions, they鈥檙e looking to technology, and data, to help them get back their investments and generate a profit.

If that sounds expensive, it is. But given the size of Bragan莽a Agroneg贸cios, 13,000 hectares, (50 square miles or 32,000 acres), and the volatility of commodity prices, Boscoli simply cannot afford to go without.

鈥淲ith access to all this information, I see what鈥檚 happening daily in the field鈥攚here the machines are and what they are doing鈥攁nd also in the markets,鈥� he explains. 鈥淭he soy market is crazy. You鈥檝e got to watch for updates daily. If you don鈥檛 have real-time market data, it鈥檚 easy to do a bad deal.鈥�

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Plowing data, not soil

Gen Z鈥檚 investment in technology is likely to deepen for two reasons. First, the farmers鈥� operations are likely to get bigger, in keeping with decades of consolidation worldwide, and bigger farms are a lot more complex to manage. Principals can no longer circle their operations in two hours. Day to day tasks demand rafts of fulltime employees, not just family members.

Second, exponential leaps in data-capture spur ever greater reliance on digital tools that can amass, analyze, and model data to inform decision-making. A generation ago, digital yield maps transformed farming by capturing and processing farm-level data. Today, farmers are looking at layers of field-level data. Tomorrow? They鈥檒l be capturing plant-level data.

That鈥檚 both a blessing and a curse for Gen Z farmers. They will likely rely less on intuition and more on decision-making tools and software. These tools will enable them check their instinct against the algorithm鈥檚 assessment of what will happen, and make a decision without emotional bias. Yet, because the farm is ever larger, there鈥檚 an enormous amount of information to manage.

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Changing the narrative

Their use of social media, however, is what utterly distinguishes Generations Y and Z from their Boomer forebearers. By sharing every aspect of farm life over YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram, they are rekindling the interest of consumers in where food comes from and how it is produced. Video parodies posted on YouTube by the Peterson Brothers, a trio of Kansas farmers consisting of Greg, 30, Nathan, 28, and Kendal, 25, garner听millions听of views. Boscoli鈥檚 personal Instagram feed of bean fields and monster trucks commands 37,500 followers, and Bragan莽a Agroneg贸cios commands another 11,800.

And these young farmers are using that following not merely to entertain, but also to educate. Cesinha Farias and Sailinha Farias, the twenty-something siblings behind @Jovensdoagro, young people from the farm, on Instagram, are a good example. Accompanying a snap of Cesinha crouching beneath a thicket of sugarcane is a post about the environmental benefits of ethanol.

Nothing could be more important to the future of agriculture than the positive influence these young farmers wield. With pictures and personal stories about farming and farm life, they鈥檙e chipping away at misconceptions and building trust with consumers. Trust based on values they share about sustainable production and a venture that spans generations. Post by post, they鈥檙e closing the relationship gap with consumers. In the not-too-distant future, they鈥檒l have made us all followers.