Many Hoosiers have to go back only a generation or two to find a farmer in the family. A century ago, 86% of the state’s 23 million acres were farmland on which 196,000 farms rested and 26% of the population lived. Hoosiers raised cattle, hogs, chickens and other livestock and grew corn, wheat, oats and various other crops.
The work was hard and financial success often hung in the balance of the annual harvest.
Through good times and bad, farming was a way of life in Indiana; still is. Only now there are 63% fewer farms — 53,600. And on average, they’re a lot larger — 272 acres — accounting for 64% of the state’s acreage.
As large agricultural operations, housing projects and commercial developments absorb farmland, a way of life is threatened. Land prices have skyrocketed to a record $14,000 an acre for high-quality ground, making it difficult for aspiring farmers to get a foothold. Meanwhile, children of farmers are often lured away to other jobs with the promise of more money and an easier life.
With no heir willing to claim the family farm and little hope for would-be farmers to afford start-up, acreage is gobbled up by factory farmers who might be more efficient as profit-makers but often care less about stewardship of the land.
The problem has implications for the statewide agriculture industry and for rural communities, so much so that it would behoove the state legislature to study threats to small family farms and to consider programs that would give younger generations a boost to work the land.
As reported in a recent news article by CNHI News Indiana’s Carson Gerber, more than 32,000 Hoosier farmers are of retirement age, comprising a third of all farmers in the state. Hoosier growers, at an average age of 56, are the oldest workforce in the state.
When they retire, some of their land will be passed along to the next generation of the family — if there are any takers.
After retirement, Madison County farmer John Simmermon plans to rent his land. But in the long-range future, it’s unclear whether a family member will step forward to work the land.
“I’m not sure what will happen,” he told Senior Reporter Ken de la Bastide for a news article in The Herald Bulletin. “There are a lot of family farms where the next generation is not interested.”
The prohibitive prices of land and farming equipment (a new combine can cost as much as $500,000), in most cases, dictate that a large farm operation will step in to purchase the land, or commercial developers will swoop in.
In the long run, an important slice of Indiana’s culture — family agriculture — faces continuing decline, unless policymakers step in to help.
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