Farmers Are Aging. Their Kids Don't Want to Be in the Family Business(www.wsj.com)

11 pointsby JumpCrisscross5 hours ago2 comments

washadjeffmadan hour ago
There's more to it, but on the heels of the egg crisis and poultry instability following years of consolidation of small and independent producers into large, corporate farms following the 2008 and 2014 Farm Bills, the perspectives of national leadership seem to be simplified to financials over a clear understanding of what contributes to the health and security of domestic food production.
I'd say I was worried, but there's not much to do about it. I've just watched ag and dairy dry up over the last quarter century as farmers in my state chase anything that will give their families security, even if it means being paid not to produce, not letting their children learn the business, or selling off land.
JoeAltmaier5 hours ago
In Iowa, most farmland is owned by folks 55+. A third in their eighties. Half women (widows by and large). The land, if it's farmed at all, is by a younger tenant farmer who pays cash rent.
A huge intergenerational transfer is imminent. What the grandkids will do with eighty acres in Iowa is anybody's guess.
- codingdave4 hours ago
  80 acres sounds big to people who don't live in the country, but is fairly small potatoes when it come to agricultural land. Such parcels will get consolidated into nearby large operations/corporations. Sometimes that is a corporate farmer, sometimes a local family or two just hoovers up land as it becomes available. But there is no guessing needed - land ownership will consolidate.
  - pinkmuffinerean hour ago
    Ya for real, 80 acres? My uncle farms 10,000+ acres...
    0_____010 minutes ago
    80/10,000 acres of what? Is your uncle in corn/soybeans?
    80 acres is a Vermont kind of operation. Eating crops. They're around.
- apothegm4 hours ago
  Sell for cheap to big corporate farming conglomerates. At least until the market is so saturated that even the conglomerates have no use for more.
  Meanwhile, a few here and there will be snatched up by people from coastal cities who have made enough to FIRE and have romanticized farming. They won’t grow significant crops but will raise a few chickens and goats and a garden full of cabbages and peppers.
  If you had the right background and resources, you could probably make a killing buying up 80 acres for a pittance, carving it up into 5- or 10-acre plots with modern amenities (upgraded plumbing; solar; excellent internet) and pre-built facilities for small numbers of farm animals, and selling them off to that market with the value-add of instant community.
  - codingdave4 hours ago
    Carving up farmland into home plots is easier said than done. Most fields have zero infrastructure, so you need to drill wells, run power lines, streets and/or ROW for driveways. Internet access is pretty easy as you get get a fiber line run. You'll need to work with the local town and county for permits and be sure that they can handle the additional services such as road maintenance, plowing, trash pickup, etc.
    It could be done, but it is not just re-drawing some parcel lines and calling a realtor. Even once you get it done, you now need to build somewhat expensive homes to recover your costs, and the FIRE folks will then probably buy that century farmhouse down the street and re-parcel the connected field to keep a few acres for themselves and sell the rest to the neighbor, as they can almost get a house in the country for free if they do so.
    JoeAltmaier3 hours ago
    Also you often cant build without owning a minimum of land, like 40 acres. A rule to stop the urbanization of farms. That could change, but for now you'd have to get the zoning board to make an exemption.
  - silisili32 minutes ago
    Where I live, it's not the conglomerates buying up farmland but developers. This put a huge strain on infrastructure and also exploded the price of land, so much so the county finally outright banned it.
    Not sure the dynamics of Iowa of course, so it could be different...but I do not live in a particular big or interesting area, either.