Farmers, more than most, are perpetually at the mercy of time and the whims of natural
forces. And they are currently losing that battle.
By Gavin Stone
T
he average age of a farmer in the
United States has been increasing for
decades, from 50.5 years old in 1982
to 58.3 years old in 2012, and is currently
closer to 59 years old in North Carolina,
according to the 2017 Census of Agriculture.
“The biggest concern is that you don’t
have young farmers coming in to replace
(the experienced farmers),” said Richard
Goforth, area specialized agent in poultry
for the North Carolina Cooperative
Extension, whose area includes all counties
between Harnett and Cleveland County
and down to the state line. “We’re losing a
lot of knowledge and skill that’s not being
replaced.”
For Chris Yaklin, president of the Richmond
County Farm Bureau and a poultry farmer
supplying chickens for Mountaire Farms,
he’s preparing — at age 62 — for his
productivity, which amounts to seven days
a week of tending to tens of thousands of
chickens and more than a thousand acres
of land (with a few staff), to dwindle in the
coming years. Yaklin has made a concerted
effort to be a mentor to young farmers, not
only to carry on his own production but
to bring in new faces. He explained that if
the person you’re planning to hand off the
farm to hasn’t already been on the farm
long enough to know the ins-and-outs, the
prospect could easily scare them off and
could force a farmer to sell.
“Young people have a really hard time
(getting into farming),” Yaklin said. “If they
don’t inherit a farm, the barriers to entry are
very high.”
Aimee Coif, horticulture and forestry agent
for the Anson County Extension Service,
said that multi-generational farms have been
able to acquire land and assets over time
to expand and diversify their product and
buffer themselves from weather, disease and
market fluctuations.
“Everyone has to come up with a strategy to
balance their farm income based off their
available resources, time, land and labor,”
Coif said.
Randy Wood, cooperative extension director
for Scotland County, said Scotland County
is “fortunate” to have quite a few farmers
between the ages of 30 and 40 years old.
“A lot of those are born into it — the next
generation stepping up — they’ve been able
to maintain profitability so there is a viable
future for them,” he said. “That’s not true of
every farm.”
Wood added that many get so focused on
the ins-and-outs of fertilizing, growing and
picking that they forget about the financial
considerations. “It all boils down to one
thing: can they run a profitable business?”
he said.
Once someone does get into the business,
it can be a long time before they see profits,
and even then, profit margins are low.
Paige Burns Clark, extension director for
Richmond County, said the value of what
farmers are growing is not keeping pace
with input costs, causing farmers to “fall
further and further behind.”
Among those working to reverse that
trend are county extension offices, which
connect new farmers with tools and
resources that can help them navigate early
struggles and protect them from burn out
or dissatisfaction with the industry. Randy
Wood, cooperative extension director for
Scotland County, touted the extension’s
“farm schools” which Wood said focus very
little on the “hands in the dirt” farming and
instead focus on how to build a business
plan.
Another national trend that tracks locally
is that farms are growing in size, but their
numbers are dwindling. In Richmond
County, the number of farms dropped by
14% from 2012 to 2017, but the average size
of farms has increased by 45% over time
span. There were 28% less farms in Scotland
County in 2017 than there were in 2012,
and farms increased in average size by 11%.
Anson County’s shift was less dramatic, with
it losing 4% of its farms from 2012 to 2017,
and farms increasing in size by 6%.
This trend is caused by farms consolidating:
larger farms absorbing smaller farms that
have either failed or the farmer has run out
of people to pass it along to. The inability
of farmers’ neighbors to take on new
land out of fear of not being able to make
enough money producing on it is another
factor. Anson, Richmond and Scotland
counties each boast cheaper land prices than
surrounding counties like Moore, Union
and Hoke.
“Hoke has lost tons of farmland in the
last 20 years–the days are numbered there
(for farming),” said Wood. Developments
February-March 2020 • 9