How do we get the next generation started farming???

There have been many on here talking about the younger generation of farmers. They are on both sides of the fence, some for them and some against their actions.

Here is my question: How are we going to get the next generation of farmers started??? Here are some of the problems I see.

1) The high cost of the capitol things you need to farm. I mean land, equipment, and inputs. The price of land is making it just about impossible to buy even for current farmers. Cash rents are not much better. I have been hearing some talk by some of the land owners of wanting higher rents next year because of the $8 corn and $17 dollar beans. $350-450 is the common cash rent right now.

2) The transfer of these assets to the next generation. Most of the current land owners need the income and sale price of the land because it is a majority of their retirement money. So how does the current owner get even near the current land value with a younger person getting the land????

3) We are becoming a country of serfs and landholders. The percentage of the land owned by those farming it has steadily dropped in the last 20-30 years. This is not a good long term thing. It makes the long term care and maintenance of the land less likely to happen. If you only have a 2-3 year rental agreement you are not going to treat the land the same as the land you own.

4) I think that the trend of absentee land owners is not a good long term thing. The land to them is just an investment. Their main interest is to maximize the income off that investment. As a pure investment I understand that and support that. As a small community member I see the trouble that this is causing in that community. We have fewer local people with "skin" in the game so to speak. So it is harder to keep doing the things that a community needs to do. Like keep a fire department manned or raise the funds for local services. Also the absentee land is usually not cared for as well as similar land owned by the person farming it. I do many things on my land that will never pay for themselves but it is what the land needs to still be productive in 50-100 years. It is real hard to justify contour strips and buffer dams. They do not pay for themselves in any cash flow you come up with other than long term land improvement. That will not get done by a short term renter. Not knocking the renter they just can't afford to do the practice.

So what do you guys think??? I am stumped on how to just transfer my assets to my own kids. The value is all out of step with the earning potential of the asset.

How do you pay for an asset that is returning 2-3% in profit/income?? Where do I get those numbers?? I would not list my farm right now for any less than 2 million and not expect it to sell. It only makes about $50,000 clear profit each year. Not as much tillable land and a lot of buildings. I don't have near that in the place but that is real close to what the current value is. Truthfully it would need to be bought for half of its current value and even then it would not be easy to pay for it.

I know I posted about my sons just buying some ground. I am not sure that we/they did the correct thing. I still worry that this decision may sink us all.

It really made me laugh when a poster accused me of not being aggressive enough in todays land market, owning/renting. I would like to hear if he is running out an buying/renting some at today's prices.

So lets hear some good ideas on how we can make this work. I know there are some good young people wanting in the game. So how do we make that happen???

Even has much as we are emotionally attached farming is a business, we need to teach economics and business to our children and anyone who wants to farm. You have explained the long term ramifications of our current agricultural practices those with skin still in the game like your self need to teach and preach it. I'm going to use a lefty term "sustainable agriculture" we in the community need to define it and as much as I hate to rely on the government have them adopt policies and laws that will encourage it things like tax incentives for contour strips and buffer dams (don't levy the % of land you have in either). Again this next suggestion is against my natural tenancies- reduced property taxes for land kept in sustainable agriculture. Of course we don't have to worry about our government adopting any of it, they're not into preventing problems, they want problems, heck they even cause problems so they can charge in and remind us how useful they are and we should give them more of our money and freedom.

It comes down to those who are living this particular life style need to make an effort to preserve it. That means growing the next generation of mid sized farmers. That's particularly hard because you're dealing with folks that are of the age that don't like to listen or ask for help (not throwing stones, it describes me 30 years ago).

You worry if you and your sons did the right thing buy buying the land you just did. Let's use a investment term "you made long term investments in tangible assets" Land prices are high right now it's a factor of three things- Uncle Sam is spending a lot and borrowing to pay for it, people are afraid of inflation and moving in to tangible assets (land. gold .....). High commodity prices have driven others to invest in land. Last with the interest rates so low in our money system what we have defined as a slim margin here in agriculture is looking pretty lucrative from some sitting on the outside.

You make a lot of good points. Short term greed will sink us in the end. Society will erode and the people that are not grousing about the end of the good 'ole days will being doing so soon. People in the township where I am complain that the fire department no longer does suppers including election day turkey dinners. The altruistic generation that did it has literally died off. The sad part is there are people here that could pick up that torch and carry it but choose not to. Most of it comes down to elitism in that I don't want to do anything for my community which consists of (in their opinion) low life neighbors.

One of the problems is that most of them want to start out at the top; very few are willing to start small and learn more before they move up to a larger size operation.

We had a neighbor girl who married a guy. Her Dad passed away and left her a big chunk of money. He quit his job to start farming and bought all new equipment - he went bankrupt in less than 2 years. She divorced him AFTER the money was gone; she should have taken control of her money from the start.

About the same thing happened to her cousin, except this girl was a major contributor to them blowing all of the money, although it took them 4 years to go through all the money and file bankruptcy.

I agree.I am 56 yrs old and my son has absolutly NO interest in farming.I dont blame him!The hrs suck and the pay is lousey.The BTOs out bid us and 'steal' our leases.There are no youngsters willing to step up,few oportunitys for those few who want to farm..The high inputs are killers-high dollar equipment prohibitive.Most would not even consider farming with the "junk" that I do...Yes,we need to encourage the next generation of farmers,but how?

Simple answer is, you don't. If you can't inherit into it or have a big enough bankroll to buy into it, you don't get into it. Dad was a small farmer, owned almost all his land but was running older equipment on a few hundred acres. We took a look at it, and I went to college instead of farming. Just wasn't any way for us to both make a living without going insanely far into debt to expand enough to feed us both. I've worked with a few guys trying to start out, the ones who succeed are the ones with family already farming that they can get machinery and support from. For the rest, it becomes a somewhat break even hobby. As long as farming is about economies of scale, the trend is not going to reverse, for small farmers, the only options are rapidly becoming go big, go home or become a niche.

My dad lost the dairy farm and all equipment in the tough times of the 1980's. Didn't make the dairy herd buy out. He never tried to start farming again. I am now in my early 30's trying to start farming with antiques. It has forced me to be a self taught mechanic. Since we lost the farm, when I was a kid, all I have ever wanted was to farm. I now teach and do that job because it pays the bills. I farm a little on the side. My dream is to farm full time, but how. My wife and I scratched up up the money and the guts to buy an old run down farm. We love it here, but it is not enough land. We are strapped for money and have no parents that can help financially. I know my dad would love to see me farm full time, but can't/won't help financially. I don't expect my parents to. I was born to work hard and want to make my dad, grandfathers and great grand fathers proud. Land renters want to see new monster machines running their land or they are worried they won't get payed even though I pay in all cash. We send out flyers and make personal contacts, but we only have a tiny bit of land. I really get down sometimes because I have absolety no family help or connections. I am a good farmer, but worry for my 2 young boys if I will ever be able to get it done for them. They love my old equiptment and love to be a part of the farm. I do believe in miracles, but they usually happen to others. I have spent the last 10 years trying to figure out this exact questions. It is nice to hear the older generation cares about getting the younger generation started from scratch.

Money, status and lifestyle.

No one (but themselves) can say how any particular individual can transfer their assests, but.........for the question in general; it'll resovle itself; SOMEONE is gonna be working those acres the year after you're not. It's most likely gonna be an already-big farmer who's gonna get bigger. In my lifetime, I've watched the average size operation (around 'here') go from about 150-200 acres to today's 5,000-plus acres and there's no end in sight. There's probably gonna be an increase in the small, niche market type of operations, but as a percentage of the whole, they're currently insignificant.

I have a old farm magazine from 1967. There is a front page story outlining the same things JD just stated in point 1 and 2.

That is the way farming has always been and that is the way it is probably gonna stay.

I will try to find it tonight.

I understand needing the income (via selling our land to live on as we get old) and still wanting our children to have our farm. That idea is almost an impossibility. I'm 63 and address this issue with my kids almost on a daily basis. The only way for a young person to farm today is to have an outside job to support /pay for the land. One of my sons graduated with a degree in agriculture. He took a job in a totally different field that actually paid "good money". He then had the income/cashflow to make land payments. He bought 225 acres (cattle farm)3 miles from my farm. We share equipment.....actually he owns one tractor and I provide the rest. I do all his haying with my hay equipment. I enjoy helping him in this way. My other four children all know I will help them too but not financially. They all also know that when it comes time for me to have to sell my farm in order to have income, that I will do so.
As a footnote to JdSellers recent incident with the young man that he thinks stabbed him in the back......perhaps now is the appropriate time to sit down with this young man again and have a heart to heart talk and address the recent events and it's ramifications upon this young man's life. Perhaps he will listen now. Everyone needs a second chance. Show compassion.....he needs it, and JD....you know it.

let me start by asking you how you started.that pretty much sums up how you do it today! MY opinion:in reply to yours,
(1)capitol has always been a problem in this buisness(and every buisness for that matter).and i dont think that changes. it is horrendously expensive these days thats for sure, but ONE thing is certain.SOMEONE is making money at these prices,or you would see land for sale everywhere.when crop prices go up,so does land values,been that way since time began,and wont change.but their is hope in that those higher prices makes that land more profitable.solution,do what you and i did ,ride out the lean times,dont expect to make tons of money at this. because your not going to make a lot in most cases.live as cheaply as you can,get by with less than perfect equipment,and the mainest thing,realize that crop check is not YOURS first.its the farms check,your check is whats left after everythings paid and next years inputs are there.And like ALL buisnessess that have the best chance of succedding,have the operating capitol going in to live on for the first few seasons.wheather that comes from a day job,or whatever.
(2) a problem for sure,and not one easily answered, because there are so many variables involved. But heres one way of getting value from your land when selling at a reduced price to children, make a living trust , where you live on the land ,and children supply your care. nursing homes ,retirement homes are expensive also.2500 -3500 dollars a month add up.if those kids are capable of providing this care at home,then the cost of retirement would be less.AGAIN far more commitment,sacrifice, and work on their part,but thats part of starting any buisness.
(3) again true. but ,it can be profitable for both parties,and in a certain way it Might be to a starting farmers advantage to lease a portion of his land. one way this could help is if like this year we had a bad crop year,without those profits from a good crop,they might be in a better position to not lease some land back,scale back on his operation and keep the core part of his owned land that he has to make payments on intact. couldnt do this if you were actually making payments on a piece of land of course.but it could improve his cash position in those lean years.
(4) this trend wont reverse until that land becomes a liability to those landholders.that wont happen as long as folks pay rent/leases.as long as its profitable for farmers to pay these high prices,nothing will change there,when crop prices get low enough they will simply pull back onto there own land,land prices will then fall because absentee owners will become how shall we say "land poor". till that does happen this wont change and historically never has. but once again the smart player scales back,protects his core farm,and in that way is able to ride out some of these highs and lows. MY own personal plan,i want roughly the same percentage of my age in the higher risk(or leased) ground.starting i can accept more risk simply because i have more time to pay if something comes unwound. when i get 70 i want that amount to be land i can control safely or that is realitivly safe because its paid for. I actually know of one couple in their early thirties, who average farming more than 2500 acres and actualy OWN exactly 5 acres. they barely have enough room to park equipment on land actually owned by them.this actually works well for them because it gives them MORE flexibility. so it can work,it just requires adjusting to.
now to get to your deal,and im going out on a limb here and assume this land is owned by you. the earning potential of this land,if it can be leased out by your heirs is near 100% "IF" they simply do not farm it themselves. IF that makes any sense. all it requires is adjusting.you dont HAVE to farm to have in come,all the land requires is for SOMEONE to farm to be profitable.again another retirement strategy,simply lease that farm to a neighbor,live on the income,your children have the option of doing the same ,farming ALL OR PART(A VERY GOOD IDEA,simply let the leased out land pay for your farming to start) if they deam it more profitable,or selling it if they become trapped in the "land poor" category.The ONLY way this happens is if the land is sitting idle,and has no income to pay the taxes.at that point,and that point ONLY does it become a liability.
again my opinion ,the rules dont change the way i see it,to get anywhere with any buisness requires dedication and sacrifice.

I don't know that I go along with the magazine's statement. There are people I know that pulled themselves up by the bootstrap from that time. Did they go from bottom to top of the local financial order in twenty years? No. But they steadily grew their business even if it is still small and have built a certain amount of equity in it. Today is more along the lines of marry it or inherit it.

You are right about the young man in the story. Not yet but maybe in the next several months have a talk with the kid. JD does have a right to be mad at the moment and let's not forget that JD went to bat for this kid with the landlord and now has the embarrassment of that to deal with, too. I don't know that business-wise he should be the one to give the second chance but maybe just lighten the kid's burden just to get through the day. Being in a small community the weight of the eyes in the community will feel extra heavy. I also think there is something unsaid about the BTO relative to JD. Perhaps the BTO has stung people extremely close. A number of BTO's are good citizens and stewards but I know in the local community that there are a few that are downright toxic.

It's frustrating. Not that I'm the "next generation" but am up against the same challenge.

Land is just too expensive to make it worthwhile - ESPECIALLY if you're new to it. Around here, if you're not planting houses, you're not making money.

I've been wanting to get into farming forever, would love to get out of the high tech world, do something I actually have a love for - I HATE what I do now - been putting money away for quite a while (of course got wiped out in the stock market - twice - but that's another story)

The sad reality is that farming is risky business even if you KNOW what you're doing.

I'm just reluctantly coming to the conclusion that, unless you inherit your land - OR you're already wealthy enough to not care about making a profit - you're pretty much left out of the game.

Nobody's leaving me any land, so my only option is to get rich and then farm for fun. With the economy in the toilet - that long shot got a whole lot further away! Right now I'm just happy to keep the kids fed.

There will always be people brought up in the farming world that'll figure out a way to stay in it, but for "outsiders" like me to get in - very tough to break into it. Having the added responsibility of kids makes it almost impossible.

Not much you can do about it.

My sons are both in their twenties, both have good jobs and both run cows, graze stockers and grow the majority of their own feed and hay, they both own land. They worked with me all their lives and when they first left home they bought new trucks and boats etc. they soon figured out that those things are nice but don't do much good for your bottom line or help you out at tax time. Once they decided that they would rather spend their money on land and equipment and cattle that will make them money and save money on taxes it has not been that hard. Buy used equipment for cash, get it in shape to work, rent some pasture and cut some hay on shares or buy standing hay in the field, buy smaller parcels of land and make the improvements, plant the winter grazing crops, lime, fertilize, build or repair the fences, every time they pick up a new pasture they double up on income producing livestock and use the sale proceeds to exponentially pay off the land. They also pay for many things out of their salaries and neither one would be as far along as they are without their jobs, better to spend the money accumulating something rather than just let a large percentage of their yearly salaries be stolen by the various branches of government. They both live in trailers that are paid for. I have helped them by giving free reign on any of my equipment as well as working together to clear land and build fence, work cows, haul hay, run cattle on my pastures and stubble fields, but it is my pleasure to do all I can to help them get ahead and hopefully not have to work for the other man all their lives in order to make a living.

sounds to me like you need to move farther from town.

I wanted to start farming in 1959. Was working full time as mechanic. Had no equipment so no one would rent me any land, could not borrow money to buy equipment unless I had a signed rental agreement. Still a mechanic.

A couple of comments:
- What's interesting about this discussion is its application to a lot of fields. I hear the same thing about engineering, doctors, nurses. The only field that I DON'T hear this about is LAWYERS. They're making those like there's no tomorrow. (Disclosure: 2 of my daughters are attorneys :lol: )

- I don't believe we have a "lack of farmer" crisis. I don't see empty shelves in the supermarket because nobody is farming. SOMEONE is producing that food and it may be big operations, but that's the evolution of the business. Just like the assembly line revolutionized manufacturing, ag science and technology has made it possible for fewer people to feed more people. It's no different than bemoaning the fact that a young mechanic can't get started building cars to compete with Ford Motor. I know my wife and I don't know/care if the product we're buying is grown on a family owned farm or on a corporate piece of land. What we care about is price and quality. Plus a lot of food get's processed into what we buy after it leaves the ground by a processor who, again, may be family owned or a giant corporation.

- As one poster stated, if it becomes un-economical to rent land to produce a profit, renters will stop doing it and owners will be "land-poor". Some may be able to pay the taxes and just sit, but others need the cash and rents will drop until it becomes economical to rent it again.

- when JD wrote about his (sons) recent land purchase, I whistled and did a little math based on average corn yields, corn prices and asked myself if I'd go that far in debt ($ 4.2 mil, IIRC). The return on investment didn't look bad (I made a lot of assumptions) and would be worth the risk IF THAT'S WHAT YOU WANT TO DO FOR A CAREER. That is the same kind of decision that is made by other "young" people every day when they "invest" by going into debt to get a law or medical or engineering degree, etc. So, I can envision those that love farming will take the risk plunge in and one day become big operations, doing what JD's sons are doing. The problem is (as one poster stated) that young people want everything now, won't plan for 30-40 yrs down the road and won't take the financial risk and work the long hours required to make it happen.

The truth be told there are a LOT of people from that time and before that would not be in business today if it were not for the older generation giving up what they could have had for cash to help the young ones out. A lot of families back then had the parents more or less hand the farm over to the son and at the most maybe they got a house out of it and a small token of monthly cash. There would be far fewer farmers today if back in the day these same farmers had to buy the parents out in a "true" business arrangement with interest on the unpaid balance and assets valued at full market value.

I don't know that it is all about wanting it now and a refusal to work hard. A lot of time the numbers do not crunch out favorably even if optimistic figures are used for labor inputs (smaller machinery and more hours worked). Even the farmers that come in from selling an operation in a white hot housing market help make land mostly an investor driven commodity than production (value figured on productivity of the ground). As JD pointed out this has and will erode society as fewer land owners feel they have a stake in the community. Your daughters are probably nice well adjusted moral people but I don't see how upping the lawyer count in this country will lead to long term good.

From a 35 year old perspective. Keep in mind I really love being on the farm.

You make a very valid point about selling the land for retirement purposes. More and more of this happens each year. Mainly to bigger farmers because the kids pursued other careers that paid better and had either no time or little interest in the farm.

The one big factor everyone is overlooking is how do you get the capitol money??? It's not like a 25 year old can walk into a bank with almost no credit and expect to get a loan to put out a crop with little to no collateral. The banks aren't going to take that risk.

I am in the same boat. We own a small farm (135 acres). It's nice to have, but I can't make a living from it. I calculated we only make about $250 per year per calf we raise after all expenses. On the amount of land we have, that is only about $5000-$7000 profit. Bottom line is, for the time it takes to farm it has very little annual return per acre. Other business ventures have lower risk and higher rates of return. My father would actually make more money leasing his farm for row crop than having the cattle. Not to mention all the extra time to pursue other avenues of making more money (Dozer excavation) and more time to spend with the family. He's now starting to see that and wanting to scale back to just a few hobby cows.

Bottom line is it just doesn't pay enough for the hours and the risk involved at this time in my life. I would love to do it full time and actually have the equipment that is paid for, but I don't want to risk my family to pursue my dream and quit my engineering job. My paycheck comes whether it rains or not. I told Dad several times to quit investing money in the farm in hopes I will carry on. I told him my plan was to pull up the fences, lease to a row cropper, and me and my son to only hunt on the property as I don't have time to raise cattle. Between my full time job, my wife's home based business, and family time there isn't enough hours in a day.

yeah - REAL far!

I didn't want to abandon my parents here - but they both passed away fairly recently.

So one less thing keeping me here.

Now I've got kids in 7th and 9th grade - they don't want to leave their friends.

so - a few more years - just might pack our bags and move to the middle of nowhere.

been there done that my ownself. Nearly every place close around the house here comes up for sale goes to developers. Even my wife whos a born and bred city girl says its getting too crowded. Cant move though,she's on heart transplant list and you have to be within so far of hospital and we're right on the edge now. seriously though,look farther out. one place to watch is the school land leases if they have them where you are. not a whole lot of folks think about them,but sometimes you can pickup a deal. i just got a notice in the mail so its that time of year.

I am in the trouble you dicribe. My brother and I both want to take over Dad"s farm. Both of us work in town and help out on the farm when ever possible but niether of us have the capital to buy any of dads equipment or land. We have been to a few land auctions and it has just been to much for us to afford. 9000-12000 an acre Dad is getting ready to retire and does not want to take on any big debt. After a long discusion with the tax man this is what he proposed. Dad puts his farm into a corperation and my brother and I buy shares untill Dad has been bought out of shares. Operating capital stays in the corperation and dividends are paid to share holders.

Probaly to late into this but some time ago the year 1850 let many people into farming, including my incesters the world turned a few times now but still in all, in the order for new people to get into farming they must be given the same land act. as for our fathers was given, anyone with all the ideas of self worth, not wanting to give in to the young people of today, just will not get any one anything but corperate ag. young people don't want everything, just a chance, to prove themselves The land act, was proven, even back then you could not survive on a quarter section. Just because you see all the talk of the machinery of today, More than not in a few years. things will all change, We as a people must realize that we cannot see clearly enough in to the furture to predict all. If you have succesful people you are the same. It happens in every family, Slow down give it thought, the years pass very quick.

I started farming 100 acres completely on my own recently, age 29 now, work as an engineer full time. I helped a family friend a lot when I was younger and have him for advice and to "bounce" my ideas off of. I can make it work because I don't mind running smaller older equipment. I have a 4 row 30" 7000 John Deere corn planter and wouldn't trade it for a bigger one, and that about sums up my philosophy on farming. In the future you'll see 30 farms per county, 10 of them will be full-time 5000+ acre operations who will claim to still be "family" farms. The other 10 will be guys with 100-250 acres like myself who enjoy it and don't mind being a part-time small operation. Then 10 more guys will bale hay and raise a few beef cows. Other than that its over for midwestern farming. My question for the "older" generation is why couldn't we have been content with 4020's and 4 row planters? Was 250 acres and livestock really that bad? It was screwed up beyond belief long before this generation was even born.

Putting land in a corporation can cause more problems down the road.If you try to get it out your taxed twice.Assets are fine,but not real estate.

My Dad sold me the farm on a Contract for Deed years ago. Sale price was property tax value and I pay 4% interest and make a mortgage payment to him every month.

If you want to use your farm as retirement income, you'll have a hard time finding a place to earn 4% on the money you'd get from a cash sale.

The hard part (in our situation) was the passing of the torch as the operation's primary decision-maker.

Nearly every story I know of personally that has taken place in the past 60 years looks similar.
Story A: Started small with 30 year old equip. Working a side job (often spouse too). Finally got big enough to be full time farmer when they were around 50.
Story B: Had someone "help them out" by selling assets to them at a discount, even then it was a tough go and they had very old equip.
Story C: Story A or B or a homestead had happened 2 generations prior and they have a nice farm, nice income.

As a 36 year old trying to get started myself I have thought about this a lot and it just seems to me that this is the way it has been for a long time and probably will be for a far future.
Other than some means of offsetting the land aquisition costs I don't see any answer and I don't see any way to offset costs that don't involve the govt. in ways we'd still think of as capitalism and freedom.

Well leaving politics out of it and like it or not, here in America, we have a government that is doing their darndest to put an end to not only farming, but our way of life.

POINT 1: The EPA is trying to designate even dust kicked up by plowing as breathing hazard to anyone and everyone. What on a farm does not create dust?

POINT 2: SB S510 (Senate Bill 510) says that no one can even GIVE away produce to anyone outside of the family that grew it. They call it the "moderation of the food safety act".

POINT 3: The department of labor has made it illegal for anyone to work on a farm under the age of 16, therefore breeding farming out those that may want to pursue what generations before them did to provide for this and other nations.

Now, the younger generations may have their problems, but the older generations such as my generation have allowed our government to get away with what they are getting away with, unchecked. The younger generation may have their problems, but the older generations, my generation have some things to be ashamed of and for, and not leaving them the same chances and freedoms left to us, is one of them. How in the world can we down them for not showing the potential to be good stewards if we were not such good stewards ourselves? We cannot blame what is coming out of Washington on them. They did not allow it to happen, we did. We ARE to blame for the crops that we are reaping, we planted the seeds and farmed what we farmed.

Plenty of blame to go around, starting in my mirror for tolerating and tolerating and being on the verge of tolerating even more.

Mark

To Mark in In. Not one of those three points are true,

POINT 1: (one example) http://farmfutures.com/blogs.aspx/arizona-loses-to-epa-on-farm-dust-2090

POINT 2: (one example) www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/111/s510

POINT 3: (one example) www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/childlabor102.pdf

Not one of those three points are true, ALL three are.

Mark

All three bills have been rejected by the HOUSE, Check with Mr. Grassley

I started from nothing, but I don't think that's possible today. If we have someone(it would only be a grandson now) who wants to take over, we will sacrifice to make that happen. We can establish another residence here on the farm, and live very inexpensively. We do now. And the farm will not be eaten up to keep either my wife or me alive.
A 94 year old neighbor just died. He did not leave his farm to his three sons( who had nothing to do with the farm) and he didn't leave it to his nephew who has been working the farm for years. He left it all to a younger neighbor who has helped with the hay and cattle the last couple years! I hope he made the right choice. It will be interesting to watch.

Dino,

Only one, SB S510 was a Bill, Senate Bill, and true, the House did not vote for it, but they still tried.

However Dino, the other two are not and were not bills, they are and were "regulations" created by non-elected political departmental head appointees that Sen. Grassley has not a single thing to do with, and if Sen. Grassey says that he does, I beg to differ with him, and for as much as I have respect for him, you feel free to tell him that I said so.

And one more thing none of these things, our current crop of young future farmers did NOT create or allow the current Washington, and for those that go around knocking and blaming them, my suggestion is that they, we, take a long look in the mirror first, because we have and are leaving them a disaster, certainly nothing to pat ourselves on the back over. WE short changed them.

Mark

If corn and bean prices hold or rise things pencil out.If the price
corrects itself to far downward it could be rough sledding for a lot
of people.

Vito

I think you are starting from a flawed assumption: That there is a shortage of new farmers. If the trends of the past century hold out, the scale of farming will continue to grow, and smaller farms will be absorbed by larger ones. The only place where a young person might enter farming without a lot of backing will be in specialty areas such as truck farming where the cost of entry is reasonably low and you don't need a lot of land to have a profitable business. For grain farmers, it's going to be the children of the bigger operators who stay in the business; the others will cash out as long as land prices stay high.

Will never happen unless the children are members of the family corporations. We will end up with farms of several thousand acres, and small hobby farms that are too hard for the BTO to farm. The capital cost is just too high.

It all depends on what you want to do, I am a 29 yr old engineer and I put myself into farming 100 rented acres row crop from absolute scratch, completely on my own. I also have a few cattle and I work the candle at both ends. I can't even put a value on the satisfaction of running my own operation. Also the satisfaction of knowing my kids will grow up on a farm. The engineers I work with respect me for wanting to make the most of life and take the risk to farm part time. You're doing an awful lot of convincing yourself you shouldn't farm... And raising cattle together with your son provides a daily bond that hunting or sports never could.

Farming in the US will change dramatically in the next 50 years in my opinion as energy and input costs rise,plenty of the new style farms popping up here on the East Coast and young people are operating them mostly BTW.

I think your right and there will be a rejuvination of smaller farms both because people will need jobs and because food prices will get to the point that freight and handling will just add too much to the cost.

Not trying to convince myself about farming. Just sharing the thoughts of why so many young people don't carry on the farming tradition. There are a ton of different avenues out there that make a lot more money and take far less time. I agree though, I do love the farm and my son does too. Nothing like a long day at the office and coming home and sitting on the 4020 half the night just driving and thinking about nothing. It really relaxes me. We will never sell the farm, but I highly doubt that I will actually farm it myself when my dad isn't able to, unless I do it for a retirement hobby in 30 years.

My father in law had a retirement plan. In 1988 he purchased a 300 acre farm that needed a lot of work for $88,000 and he didn't have anywhere near enough funds to pay cash for it, but he did have good credit. He worked at it full time row cropping and raising cattle. His plans were to let the farm pay for itself and sell it in the future. He worked out trades with the neighbors for equipment use and such. Farming didn't provide any additional money to live on as the bank took almost all the money earned, so he turned to custom sawmilling with a portable mill on the side for extra money to put food on the table and clothes on their backs. In the end, the farm did pay its own way through the years and the sawmill provided for the family (they lived very simple). In 2003 he sold most of the farm for over $250,000. He paid all the remaining farm debt, kept 50 acres, and built a new house on it and is now debt free. Bad part of the story is he died about 1 year after moving into the new house and never got to enjoy the fruits of his labor.