"Young Americans are struggling to integrate into agriculture, experts claim."."

Farming is becoming increasingly out of reach for young Americans as capital costs rise and the number of large family farms increases, experts in agriculture told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

"Large farms with annual net profits exceeding $1 million have grown over the last decade, increasing from35% of total production value to46% from2011 to2020, and during the same period, the share of large farms increased from16% to24%, according to the latest report from the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) “Family Farms of America”. These farms are merging among families and creating more large-scale farming operations, making the profession inaccessible to the vast majority of young people who wish to pursue agriculture, as experts interviewed by DCNF have said."

"The average size of farms producing major crops such as corn, wheat, soybeans, cotton, rice, peanuts, and so on, is almost certain to continue growing," said DCNF Vincent Smith, director of research in agricultural policy at the American Enterprise Institute and professor emeritus at Montana State University. "Their growth usually occurs through the purchase of less efficient farmers."

Smith points to technological innovations and increasing use of capital equipment, allowing fewer people to work on larger plots of land, which means the potential for larger farms for each individual. He also asserts that farmers are increasingly inclined to sell their farms, as farmers are following a national trend of having fewer children, limiting the transfer of farms, and that young people interested in agriculture can earn more money at a young age by pursuing other jobs besides farming.

According to the latest USDA agricultural census data, the average age of farmers has been gradually increasing from2012 to2017, rising from56.3 years on average to57.5 years. Only8% of American farmers in2017 were under35 years old, while58% were between35 and64 years old, and34% were over65 years old..

Smith claims that the lack of young people in farming is due to the older generation of farm owners not passing control of multi-million dollar operations to the younger generation, while young people are unwilling to work under the guidance of older relatives who own the farms. "In the main article, young people need better management skills than the average 21 or 22-year-old. They lack sufficient experience," Smith told DCNF. "It often happens that a son or daughter returning from the farm has 20 years of career experience in another field - they may have chosen to work in the military after college or taken a job with ADM or Cargill, or someone else - many people who are now in their 50s are just starting to manage their family farm."

According to the USDA, there is a grant program aimed at encouraging young people to engage in farming by providing educational grants in the field of agriculture. The largest grant amounts to $250,000 per year for three years and cannot be used for the purchase of capital equipment.

Most farms in the U.S. are considered family farms, and only 2.4% of farms are not owned by the primary operator, according to the USDA report "Family Farms of America." In terms of farm size, small family farms, defined as farms with annual revenue of less than $350,000, account for nearly half of the land but only 20% of production.

“The truth is that the share of agricultural production attributed to 'large farms,' as defined by the USDA, has increased,” said Darren Bakst, director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

In 2019, the share of government payments in the overall income of farmers increased to 20.35%, compared to a recent low of 7.44% in 2014, according to USA Facts data. Despite a slight increase, the percentage of income from government payments reached its peak level in 2000, at 40.48%.

The number of people employed in agriculture is expected to decrease by 2% from 2022 to 2032, despite the anticipated creation of 115,700 new jobs each year, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“I think that [owning a farm] can be feasible at any size,” said Howard Halderman, CEO of Halderman Real Estate & Farm Management. “I believe that medium-sized farms with a lot of debt or rented land will face difficulties... Those with little land, most of which they rent, will find it challenging. They are in a competitive field where they have to pay high rents to have the opportunity to lease additional land. And it’s really tough to compete with long-term farmers from other families who may be willing to pay high rents but have lower fixed costs because they operate on a larger amount of land.”

The consolidation of farms is more evident in crop production compared to livestock due to technological advancements that allow fewer farmers to manage larger plots of land using modern equipment, such as larger and faster tractors, seeders, and sprayers, according to USDA data.

“Consolidation in itself is not a problem,” Bakst told DCNF. “Often it means that the market is adapting to create efficiency and better meet consumer needs. But it is worth paying attention when the structure of the industry is shaped not by market forces, but by government intervention. In these cases, the change in industry structure does not reflect the adaptation of private actors to better meet consumer needs, but rather reflects market distortion due to government intervention.”