The average age of U.S. farmers seems to climb ever higher — it rose to 58.1 years in the 2022 Census of Agriculture. But the country is not going to run out of farmers, or of food, said an analysis published by the American Enterprise Institute on Tuesday. The operators of the largest farms, which produce half of U.S. food, fiber, and feed, are notably younger than farmers in general, based on different and more detailed USDA data.
“This is a significant difference and shows that, contrary to some policymakers’ concerns, most resources in the agricultural sector are managed by farmers in their late 40s, 50s, and 60s. Therefore, the largest farms, which are the most crucial for food security and agricultural production, are managed by the youngest farm operators,” wrote Eric Belasco, Montana State University professor, and Joe Glauber, senior research fellow at the IFPRI think tank.
Among operators of “large” and “very large” farms, the average age was 57, compared to the average of 62.9 years for all farmers in USDA’s Agricultural Resource Management Survey in 2021. So-called retirement farms, with an average operator age of 73.4 years, account for one of eight farms but only 1 percent of production.
“Using a single average to characterize the entire agriculture sector is misleading because it fails to account for diversity in farm size and region,” said Belasco and Glauber. Younger farmers are found in the Midwest, older farmers in the South and the West.
In addition, 60 percent of farms report having multiple operators, and they have a lower average age because they may include multiple members, and generations, of a family. That structure may offer a path for transition in land ownership “and more broadly, entry and exit in agriculture…Land often devolves to family members who, while typically in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, have considerable knowledge about farming and in many cases hold undergraduate or graduate degrees in agriculture,” said the analysts.
Left out of those arrangements, and an issue for policymakers, were prospective new farmers and the high cost of the equipment and land to begin farming, said Belasco and Glauber.