US farm census: More women step in as growers age

As the average US farmer ages, more women are stepping up as decision makers to help feed a booming global population.

The number of female producers increased 27 per cent in the five years through 2017, according to the first new federal census of US farms since 2012. More farms are reporting that multiple individuals are involved in decision making, with total producers increasing 6.9 per cent from 2012.

“The glass ceiling is getting cracked and busted here and there in a lot of ways,” said Renee Strickland, who co-owns a cow-calf operation as well as a business exporting live animals in Myakka City, Florida.

Here are some other highlights from the census:

Ageing farmers

Farmers are getting older. The average age climbed to 57.5 in 2017, up 1.2 years from five years earlier, according to the census. Producers tend to have a couple of decades of experience under their belt, and about 74 per cent live on their farm. However, the more money a farm makes, the younger the age of the producers, on average. On operations with $1 million or more in sales, the average age is 53.8. The oldest class of farmers at an average 58.8 years old pull in farm revenues of $10,000 to $24,999.

“Data skews older on age, because the government’s definition of a farmer is extremely broad and includes people who don’t have commercial operations,” said Scott Irwin, an agricultural economist at University of Illinois.

Fewer profitable farms

The census data just goes through 2017 and it shows that even before the US-China trade war kicked in, it became hard to make money through farming. Years of bumper crops have lead to bulging inventories. Relatively good growing weather has helped production expand across the global at a time when gains in crop technology also helped to boost yields. The bottom line is ample supplies are keeping prices stuck in a rout.

Between 2012 and 2017, farms reporting net losses rose 1.2 per cent to 1.15 million. That’s more than the number reporting net profits, which dropped 8.3 percent over the period to 891,329.

Farm consolidation

Consolidation is “the story of capitalism,” US Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said to reporters after the census data was released. “One of those conditions that I think contributes to that I think is the economy-of scale-challenges with capital investment.”

“We know what’s happened in equipment, when combines are from $500,000 to $750,000, that has to amortised over a larger number of acres,” he said. “I think that’s a natural flow of what we’ve seen for input costs.”

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