Edited by Dave Price
When a 176-acre farm in southwest Illinois recently went on the market, the auction company agents who handled the sale had an idea of the price that it would fetch. The agents knew the market well and thought they would get around $3.2 million for the land. There were no surprises when it sold for just under $3.2 million.
What did surprise them was the number of buyers who walked away with a piece of the farm. There were four. And one of them was a beginning farmer who used a program the USDA offers to help get more people into farming and ranching.
RELATED: Learn more about the plans for the Illinois farm, which includes a Christian school. Read that companion story in Successful Farming.
Each year, Congress targets a percentage of federal loan funds to beginning farmers through the USDA Farm Service Agency. According to a USDA spokesperson, most beginning farmers cite access to farmland and working capital as their two biggest challenges.
Building a successful farm is especially challenging for beginners who have difficulty accessing traditional commercial credit. Federal loan programs can help.
There are qualifications. A beginning farmer or rancher is an individual or entity who:
Has not operated a farm for more than 10 years
Substantially participates in the operation
Can’t own a farm greater than 30 percent of the average size farm in the county
An entity must include members related by blood or marriage, and all must be eligible beginning farmers.
And when it comes to the age of people taking advantage of this program, it’s important to know that the term “beginning” doesn’t necessarily mean “young.” According to USDA statistics, the average age is 47.
Below are the percentages of federal loans per age group for beginning farmer federal loans (2022 USDA data):
Younger than 35: 24%
35-64: 61%
65 and older: 15%
What is also interesting to note is how many beginning farmers are currently operating in the United States. Although, some perspective is needed.
In 2022, the USDA conducted an agricultural census and found that 1,011,715 producers identified as beginning farmers (fewer than 10 years of farming).
That represents 30% of producers in the country.
The largest share of beginning farmers was in states along the East and West Coasts. The top states with the largest percentage of beginning farmers include Rhode Island (41.4%), Alaska (38.7%), Maine (35.9%), Colorado (35.6%), New Hampshire (35.3%), Hawaii (35.2%), Georgia (34.4%), Idaho (34.1%), Nevada (33.9%), and Florida (33.9%).
WATCH: Montana farmer Kate Stephens, 20, gives a unique view of what it is like to be a younger person in agriculture. She talked with American Farmland Owner while she harvested. See that conversation here.
But most beginning farmers aren’t just farming, and their operations tend to be smaller than those who have been farming longer.
According to the USDA:
72% of beginning farmers reported a primary occupation other than farming (compared to 58% of all U.S. producers).
51% worked off the farm 200 days or more.
51% operated farmers smaller than 50 acres.
The average size of farms with a beginning producer was 312 acres compared to 463 acres for all U.S. farms.
They were more likely to be female than producers overall (41% of beginning producers were female compared to 36% of all U.S. producers).
