Beginning Farmer and Rancher Opportunities
| Farmers under the age 35 are fast becoming an endangered species. The decline in young farmers over the preceding 15 years has been the most dramatic of the last century. Yet opportunities exist in farming and ranching, especially for those who capture the growing consumer interest in healthy food and stewardship of our natural resources. |
Getting a Start: Land Link
Land Link helps beginning farmers and ranchers gain access to the land, financing, knowledge and skills that they need to make a successful start. Land Link matches retiring farmers with beginning farmers and others who desire to farm or ranch.
We have helped set up a lot of different linking arrangements between retiring and beginning farmers and ranchers. For ideas on what has worked in the past, see our success stories on transfer strategies.
The first of its kind in the nation, Land Link has been replicated in 20 states and in Japan, Australia and Canada. The Center for Rural Affairs participates in a network that brings all the linking programs in the nation together to support the next generation of farmers and ranchers, the National Farm Transition Network.
Beginning Farmers and U.S. Agriculture
The population of U.S. agriculture is poised to make a dramatic change - half of all current farmers are likely to retire in the next decade. U.S. farmers over age 55 control more than half the farmland, while the number of entry-level farmers replacing them has fallen by 30 percent since 1987 and now makes up only 10 percent of farmers and ranchers.
Absent a new generation of beginners, that land will concentrate in large farms, causing the permanent loss of opportunity for family farms, ranches, and rural communities and squandering the chance to shift to a more sustainable system of agriculture.
Beginners have different needs than established farmers and ranchers. Beginning farmers often lack the capital and the scale of operation to make profits with high-cost technologies and production systems that are the focus of many research and education programs. The Center's programs on behalf of beginning farmers address these needs.
We also advocate for beginning farmers with policy makers. Center for Rural Affairs Assistant Policy Program Director, Traci Bruckner is a member of the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Advisory Committee.
Financing for Beginning Farmers and Ranchers
Before seeking outside financing, beginning farmers and ranchers need to do some basic planning. Review 8 important factors beginning farmers and ranchers should consider before seeking financing: financial picture overview. Then look at potential funding sources in a review of beginning farmer financing programs. For information on business planning and small business advice, you can find help from our Rural Enterprise Assistance Program.
We advocate for innovative measures like the Nebraska's Beginning Farmer Tax Credit Act that make it possible for established farmers to receive a tax credit when they rent equipment, livestock, or land to a beginning farmer or rancher. Nebraska tax incentive programs encourage cooperation with beginning farmers or ranchers.
Review the tax incentive program fact sheet. To help with retirement planning, look over our succession planning questionnaire(pdf).
Successful Strategies for Beginners
The Center gives family farmers and ranchers access to information about new production systems and skills to capture a larger share of the consumer food dollar. These types of production systems offer environmental benefits while linking farmers more closely to consumers.
We were part of a national project to identify successful strategies for family-scale farmers and ranchers. Substituting management and skill for debt while integrating livestock systems with crops to fully use farm resources makes sense for family-sized operations. We offer a series of articles on advice for beginners (pdf) to help them get their start in agriculture.
We put together a comprehensive guide for farm and resource planning, designed especially with beginning farmers in mind, IFARM: Integrated Farm and Resource Management Plan. The planning materials integrate environmental protection with economic and community goals as well as family and personal goals. IFARM addresses marketing, production, financial planning, and assessment. If you are interested in this publication please send an email to Wyatt Fraas, wyattf@cfra.org.
100 Beef Cow Ownership Advantage Program
This exciting example of a targeted beginning farmer/rancher program launched in 2007 at Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture. The 100 Beef Cow program aims to have NCTA graduates return to rural Nebraska with a large enough asset to be a viable partner, not a "hired hand," within an agricultural enterprise.
NCTA students (not just the beef cattle students) focus on building their own business with business plan training, internships, and finance classes. Project partners USDA Farm Service Agency, NE Department of Agriculture and farm-and-ranch organizations help with loans, tax incentives and encouraging landowners to participate.
NCTA graduates leave school with a loan for 100 cows and a plan for transitioning to ownership of a farm or ranch. Find out more about the 100 Beef Cow Ownership Advantage Program or call NCTA at 308.367.4124.
Estate Tax Planning Tools
As American farmers and ranchers age, they face the dilemma of how to pass on their life’s work. They can pass on a working business or they can sell off the land, equipment, livestock and facilities piecemeal. Coloring this basic decision are considerations of retirement income, long-term care payments, interests of heirs, and tax consequences.
Every farmer and rancher faces these inevitable decisions, yet an Iowa study found that two-thirds of farmers over age 65 had done little or no planning for retirement. Remedy that by taking a look at our Estate Tax Planning Tools.
Contact Mike Heavrin, mikeh@cfra.org or 402.687.2103 x 1008 for more information on the Center for Rural Affairs' work with beginning farmers and ranchers.
