And bellowing "Come on! Come on!" at a flock of llamas, dressed in translucent spectacles topped off with an ivy cap, the 23-year-old is not quite changing their minds.

But they better get used to it – young people choosing a life on the land after studying at university, is becoming more and more the norm in the Canberra region, industry leaders say.

A new survey from The Future Farmers Network, a not-for-profit which aims to bring young people into agriculture, shows as many as 45 per cent of 18-35-year-olds working in agriculture in the Canberra region are university educated.

And 37 per cent of them have lived in urban areas and then chosen to go back to the farm, according to the survey.

The research, to be discussed at a Youth Ag Council meeting for young farmers in July, surveyed about 30,000 18-35-year-olds and found most are aged 20-25.

FFN executive officer Michael Burgess 31, said this showed "a generational shift back to agriculture".

"There is a lot of people who want to get into farming from the city or have left the farm and are in the city to study but are keen to get back out there," he said.

A 2014 study funded by the Rural Industries R&D Corporation found that the number of farmers aged under 35 has fallen by 75 per cent from 1976 to 2011.

But there may yet be cause for Mr Burgess's optimism – the research found Australia was doing a better job that most, with a younger farming population than all but one other developed country, New Zealand.

Others agree, saying they are seeing more and more young entrants to the industry.

Farmer Guy Milson is the chairman of the Goulburn and District Education Foundation which funds bright and disadvantaged regional students to attend university and TAFE.

The sheep and cattle farmer said while the average age of farmers was still high and the level of tertiary education low, with the end of the mining boom and its tantalising salaries, he was starting to see some change.

"I think for the newer generation of farmers that I see coming on the land, the greater proportion of them are tertiary-educated," he said.

"It's growing, there is a lot of guys going to do degrees say at Charles Sturt or they are going to Orange so there is a lot of people who are getting degrees and coming back onto the land," he said.

NSW Young Farmers chairman Joshua Gilbert, who is from a cattle farm on the mid-north coast of NSW, agrees.

"I think we are certainly moving into an agriculture sector now where people are more highly educated with a uni degree or TAFE course behind them," he said.

"The agriculture sector is certainly booming with a lot of new entrants and a lot of females entering the industry and a lot of really highly skilled people coming in.

"And what that is doing is ensuring there is more ideas and innovation coming into the industry which think is already quite evident," he said.

Back in Tarlo, for Mark Ayyad's initial choice to study agricultural science at university led him to a life-changing farm placement and encounter with a certain fluffy pack animal.

"I did it at Alpaca Magic out at Sutton and it turns out they also bred llamas," he said.

"So I worked a little bit with them and that was it, I fell in love."

But he said it had not been easy, from fielding questions on why he was not heading to a cattle farm instead from fellow students, to the practicalities taken for granted by those who have grown up in the bush.

"The biggest thing for me is fencing. I never know where to put a fence, how long it will take, how much it will cost and for me it's like I have no idea, someone educate me," he said.

Mr Ayyad has seen the generation gap work in his favour.

"From a llama perspective, a lot of the llama farmers are a lot older so it's good to be young person to come in and learn the ropes and then be one of the leaders in the industry in the future," he said.

Mr Ayyad said having a mentor, who he met at his first placement, has been indispensable.

"Without a mentor? Forget about it!"

When not slowly building up his parent's property into a farm, Mr Ayyad is also studying to become a paramedic on the side.

Mr Burgess said for young people without parents who owned property, getting into the game could be tough.

"One big barrier is access to capital and finance," he said.

"To build a profitable farm you need at least $5 million dollars and no bank is going to lend that to you, so it is extremely difficult for young people who are keen to get on their own place."

And it's something he wants to change, possibly by pushing for a HECS-like scheme for young farmers.

But the biggest problem changing how farming is perceived, in Mr Burgess and Mr Gilbert's eyes.

"One of the big things is battling huge stereotypes of farmers as white males in their sixties," Mr Gilbert said.

Mr Burgess said with world populations booming, Australian agriculture needed a major campaign to entice young people before Australia lost out on the economic opportunities the Asian food bowl offered.

"I just want the industry to sell itself a bit better," he said.

"It's a pretty exciting issue to be involved in there is a lot of science and innovation.

"Someone needs to take the lead but there is no clear message coming from one source.

"If we are not [getting the next generation of farmers in], someone else is going to start supplying Asia." he said.

With China pushing wool and beef prices up, local farmers are already reaping the rewards.

"I feel like I'm going to wake up and it's all a dream. With the wool and the cattle market going so well, we are running out of things to complain about," Mr Milson said.