New Farmers Face Expensive Barriers to Entry

The age of the average US farmer has ballooned to 58.3 years, partly because young would-be farmers are deterred by astronomical startup costs. In order to pull in $50,000 of profit annually, the startup costs for a grain farm in Iowa would be $5,157,000, $2,695,000 for a dairy operation in Nebraska, and $4,477,500 for a wheat farm in Kansas. In 2017, the average farmland price was $3,080 per acre, compared to $1,090 per acre in 2000. 70 to 80 percent of new farmers in the US take over the operations of an existing family farm. 71.4 percent of US farmers earn less than 25 percent of their income from farm operations. Gro Intelligence provides subscribers with the data and analytics necessary to effectively forecast US farm economics.