Ag Issues Mini-Series: Accessibility to Farm

Writer’s note:  As a finalist in the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation’s Excellence in Agriculture competition, I had the opportunity to share my background and contributions to agriculture, but also pressing issues I see impacting agriculture today.  Over the next few weeks I’ll cover these issues in my blog.

Getting started farming also means making investments: new fencing, building portable pasture shelters for our goats and purchasing a gator, which is our main piece of equipment for the farm/grazing.

Without having access to family land or other farm assets, it’s been a lot of work for us to get to where we’re at with the farm.  While my husband grew up on a dairy farm in Northwestern Wisconsin, we weren’t in a position to utilize his family’s farm.  I consider ourselves really lucky that we were able to save money from our jobs working in the non-farming side of agriculture and then actually be able to find reasonably priced farm land that wasn’t scooped up by more established farmers in our area.  We purchased a retired beef and dairy farm. It’s been a lot of work to get barns updated, put in new fence and animal walkways, even investing in equipment.

A daunting investment:
Starting to farm

• Aging population: 57 average age, 30% +75 (USDA)
• Access to land is a top challenge (ABFB)
• Cost of entry can be prohibitive, especially without access to family land/assets

While I’m getting closer to my projected size for my farm, I know it also wouldn’t be possible without programs and resources that support beginning farmers. Farming takes a lot of capitol (meaning money) and assets (meaning equipment, facilities, land and so on).  It is a huge investment to get started, especially when you don’t have access to family land and/or assets. I’m not suggesting my farming friends who are farming with their families have it easy, nor am I wanting this to come across as "poor me." The reality is this is a huge hurtle for our next generation of farmers who don’t come from farming families or don’t have option of using family land/assets.

While this is my story, I know there are many others who want to get into farming that have similar stories or who are still trying to figure out how to break their way in through all the barriers. In agriculture we spend a lot of time talking about farm transition plans within families, but we also need to be thinking about how transition plans could work for those who want to retire without family and with those who want to begin farming without access to family land and assets and succeed in doing so.

This issue of accessibility to farm is a major issue for agriculture, when we start to think about the average age of today’s farmers, which is an average age of 57 and 30% are over the age of 75 (USDA). And, many of these farmers are starting or want to retire. I started to recognize this challenge when I was working for CHS and met young farmers while writing profile articles for the cooperative’s farmer magazine and working with its young farmer leadership program.

Through farm organizations, we need to be supporting and promoting programs for beginning farmers through

• Supporting state and federal programs, such as those through USDA Farm Service Agency with low interest loans and the Natural Resources Conservation Services conservation programs, but also even looking at other incentives to support beginning farmers, such as the Iowa Beginning Farmer Tax Credit
• Supporting tools and programs to connect retiring farmers with beginners, such as the model with the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship or the Land Stewardship Project.  
• Facilitating beginning farmer networking, learning and leadership opportunities, such as those through organizations like Farm Bureau, the Farm Credit System or Extension.
• Including succession planning approaches beyond family as an option for consideration.

A few of the ways I’ve been helping raise awareness and address this issue is through sharing my voice as a beginning farmer with lawmakers and at our Farm Bureau district policy development meetings and with Congressional visits.

Additionally, while I’m by no means a seasoned farmer, I’ve been sharing my own advice with beginning farmers. This last summer I hosted a farm visit with a women’s conservation program, Wisconsin Farmers Union’s Women Caring for the Land program, and even helping share resources and facilitating networking with an informal farmer group I started and coordinate: the Wisconsin Meat Goat Producers Network because there is no formal state goat farmer organization.

References
Beginning Farmer Tax Credit (2017).  Iowa Finance Authority. http://www.iowafinanceauthority.gov/Public/Pages/PC204LN48
Farm demographics (2015). USDA. http://www.start2farm.gov/usda/knowledge
Young farmers still concerned about adequate land. (2015). American Farm Bureau Federation. The Voice of Agriculture.