Agriculture has shown a remarkable ability to strongly support opposing goals simultaneously without concern. While we admire and defend family ownership of farms, we also want to see more young people in farming, especially new faces. These are antagonistic goals, and unless we recognize them as such, and accept some tradeoffs, we will continue to be dissatisfied with a system that is the work of our own hands.
The ideal of multi-generation farms has real merit. It takes strong family relationships, good decisions, and frankly, luck to make any business successful for decades. The biggest reason family farms end is lack of a successor. With decreasingly smaller families and birth rates, this hurdle isn’t going to get any easier. Our profession works hard to help keep land in the family and enlarge farms as possible for additional family members. These efforts include special taxation benefits for transitions to avoid having to sell land. When established farms liquidate, land tends to be absorbed into other operations with the equity needed to finance this scarcest resource.
Meanwhile, those wanting to start in farming find access to land the biggest obstacle. Beginners may also misjudge how much labor can offset capital. As is the case with many other small businesses, the labor contribution is shrinking compared to the capital needed for land, machinery, and inputs. New farmers may also be surprised by how hard farmers with capital work.
The zero-sum nature of tillable land makes this struggle inevitable and persistent. But for the first time in my career, I think we may see some ways to finesses this first-gen/multi-gen conflict. The first is non-farm income. I am optimistic we will soon see true commercial quality broadband all over rural America. Coupled with employers who have learned being in the office is not as critical as they thought before this last year, the idea of professional level salaries for rural residents is at least possible. The second factor is the growing linkage between some consumers and producers. In appropriate locations, small, labor-intensive specialty production could be increasingly feasible.
Oddly enough, good times in agriculture can be difficult times to launch a farm career. Opportunity, however, doesn’t care what time it is.
