The Aging Population of Farmers in America

According to the USDA agriculture census, the average age of farmers in 2007 was 57. So I wondered, is the average age of farmers getting older every year, or does it roughly stay the same every year as some farmers retire and younger ones come into the business/lifestyle? As it turns out, the average age of farmers is getting older in each census.

According to my quick calculations based on trying to get numbers off of a bar graph and then simplifying them even more, it will take 32 more years before the average age of farmers reach 65. This would occur in 2041, when I am 65 myself. Interesting. Usually when I see that the average age of farmers is 57, I'm thinking, well in just a few years most of the farmers will be retiring and there will be this huge shift in farm ownership. While I still think much of that is true I would need to know what percentage of farmers is actually around 60 right now, not what the average age is. What seems to be more important than the average age is which generation does this average age represent and how does that generation differ from the previous one. This is similar in respect to law makers and the like. I'm sure their average age doesn't change much but the generation they come from does, like Obama vs. McCain.

How will the next generation of farmers be different than the current generation? Some ideas are that they will be more comfortable with using electronic means of communication for peer-to-peer and person-to-consultant (whether government or private) interaction. The majority of farms are quite small and list off-farm income as their primary income source. As more businesses adopt online networking as a part of the daily activities, this will undoubtedly have a spillover effect into farm life. This quiet revolution is already taking place as one can see with the boom of farm blogs, farmer social networking websites, and the increase in use of technology by public sponsored information sources like the Extension Service. In the current economic atmosphere, face-to-face interaction, for better or worse, is going to occur less frequently and the ability to learn in a virtual environment is going to be a necessity to access information that can benefit a farm financially and/or ecologically.