farm operators

After the fall-off from record-high corn, soybean and wheat prices in 2012, Purdue economist Mike Boehlje says growers can expect to "bounce along close to break-even for five to 10 years," reports DTN.

"Lower energy prices are expected to lead to lower total production expenses by the agricultural sector," say USDA economists, with savings of $5 billion, or 8 percent, this year and $5 billion in 2016, also an 8-percent savings.

For a generation or more, Nebraska has banned corporate farming as a way to protect small operators, says Harvest Public Media, and now the Cornhusker State is "at the center of a debate that gets to the core of what it means to be a farmer."

Marketplace, the public radio show about business, went to Durant, in eastern Iowa, to ask farmers about why a second or third income is an indispensable part of their lives. It's not for lack of land.

Sondra Pierce, who grows sugar beets, hay and sunflowers on a Colorado farm, "doesn't look like the average American principal (farm) operator," says Harvest Public Media, but she is emblematic of a change in agriculture and its data-keeping.

The average age of U.S. farmers is a frequent topic of concern because it is fairly high - 58 years in 2011, according to a new USDA report on the structure and finances of family farms.

Economists at the annual Ag Bankers Conference said crop growers will face more stress in 2015, says Farm Futures. "Some farmers may need to restructure debt to keep cash flowing the next two years, says...

One of the most-reported statistics about American agriculture is the rising average age of farmers - 58.3 years in the 2012 Census of Agriculture, an increase of 1.2 years from the 2007 census, writes economist David Widmar at the blog Agricultural Economic Insights.

In a nationwide survey, farm lenders "are not as optimistic as they were in the fall of 2013," say Kansas State University economist.