AgCareers.com Ag & Food HR Roundtable (@AgCareers / #AgRT) kicked off in Johnston, Iowa today, the home of global agricultural powerhouse and event host, DuPont Pioneer. Each year the event has grown larger and its no wonder why. With an urgent need for new talent to join the agricultural industry, there is no better event in the country for HR managers to network about job recruiting, hiring and retention tips.

The first session kicked off with some remarks from AgCareers.com President Eric Spell (who BTW- I am in a Twitter competition with) who discussed some recent trends, gave some project updates and announced some new and exciting projects. In addition, he announced the preliminary results of AgCareers.com AGRIBUSINESS HR REVIEW. This year more than 60 agribusiness companies participated with information about emerging industry trends and developments regarding Salary Reviews, HR Management Practices, Management Performance Schemes, Benefits and Salary Packaging, Recruitment Practice, Retirement Trends, and Branding Practices.

A few key discoveries according to Spell: more than 1 million agribusiness veterans are expected to retire in the next three or so years. This during the same time that there is a severe shortage of students who are graduating and taking jobs in the agribusiness field. The two hottest career fields in agriculture over the next few years: plant sciences or agronomy.

AgCareers.com has thousands of jobs on its site at any given time also has job posts for thousands of internships. Spell said the most high-profile internships for 2014 will be filled by Thanksgiving and encourages students, and employers to begin the search now.

But maybe one of the coolest programs AgCareers has, and it happens to be new, is its AgWarriors program which aims at helping connect veterans and employers. Interestingly, Spell said that more than 40 percent of the jobs needed in Ag don’t require ag backgrounds and with the unique skill sets these veterans bring to the workforce, they will be in high-demand to fill positions over coming years.

I’ve barely touched on the great information that was shared during the opening session today. You can listen to my interview with Eric Spell here: Interview with Eric Spell

Visit the AgCareers.com Ag & Food HR Roundtable photo album.