Handing down farms

Handing down farms

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
The graying American farmer. I talked with Jennifer Dempsey, Director of the Farmland Information Center. "We have an aging farming population so principal operators we know are getting older with the average age of 58.3. We also know now that non-operating agricultural land owners are also aging and are even older than our principal operators so all of our agricultural land owners are aging. I think there is actually interest among younger people and then even not so young people in agriculture so we see that beginning farmers can be of all ages and we have seen in some states according to the last agricultural census that there were actually increases in what are classified as beginning farmers. There is a growing interest, we do have an aging farmland ownership. We are probably going to have 370,000,000 acres or more transferring in the next 20 years.

Land use specialist Jim Johnson of the Oregon Department of Agriculture JOHNSON says there doesn't appear to be a lack of interest in the younger generation wanting to farm or ranch. It's a matter of accessibility and affordability of the land:

"What we're seeing out there is a much stronger interest in young people coming back to the farm– either people who never had any connection to farming whatsoever, they aren't coming back to the farm, they are starting from scratch– but also you are seeing a lot of young people that went away from the farm to go to school, might even worked another job for awhile, and they are starting to realize that's the lifestyle for them."  

Previous ReportAAA Summit
Next ReportPrecision Liquid Delivery