This is the first in a two-part series. Part II will publish on Sept. 4.
ASHLAND — “Faith or Fatalism” — that’s what a farmer deals with among all the uncertainties and setbacks the job throws at them, Centerra Co-Op CEO Jean Bratton said at a recent Coffee and Conversation agriculture networking event.
“There’s so much outside of their control. You hear about the weather, it is a huge factor to them,” Bratton said. “But there’s also just pestilence and disease and so many things that can impact them. Then you throw on top of that price volatility.”
The event, hosted by the Ashland Chamber of Commerce, saw movers and shakers from a variety of industries gather to network and learn more about the agriculture industry and where it’s headed.
Before getting into some of the challenges that farms face, Bratton reviewed a few facts about the farming industry in Ashland County.
Most farms in the county range from 100 to 1,000 acres. There are only a few large farms in the county, so few that Bratton can count them on “a few fingers.”
In the past, many of Ashland’s farms focused on dairy production. But over the past two decades, dairy has faded while farms transition to grain, beef, or poultry farming, she said.
Over the same time period, the farm industry in Ashland has faced a growing number of challenges. According to Bratton, the two largest challenges are recruiting young people and rising costs.
Recruiting Young People
Young people looking to own and operate their own farms face a “near-impossible” financial hurdle of land and equipment costs to overcome, Bratton said.
She estimated that 500 acres of farmland, which would be larger than the average United States farm, could cost $5 million or more.
Even if a prospective farmer chooses to start with a smaller farm, they still have to buy expensive farm equipment. A single combine harvester today costs $300,000 to $400,000 and tractors can cost up to $450,000 depending on their size, according to an estimate from AgFax.
Even those that manage to get a farm up and running often find themselves at risk of great financial loss.
“If they have one bad year or two bad years, they lose it all. It’s really quite sad,” she said.
As a result, the number of people entering the small farming business in the county is “almost nil,” Bratton said.
Kristin Flickinger, who works as an agriculture commercial lender at Wayne Savings Community Bank, recently had a nephew graduate high school who was looking to get into his family’s farming business.
Her father, who recently inherited the family farm, knew that her nephew would need to make more than he did when he started farming. So her nephew ended up working full-time on the family farm, tending to his own leased farmland, and working odd jobs for additional income.
It’s not all gloom and doom for young people interested in agriculture, however. There are plenty of more affordable, easier ways to get into the field, Bratton said.
“The best thing to me is if they get into ag and somehow make a connection with an older farmer,” she said.
She also pointed to a number of federal programs via the Farm Service Agency that help cover the cost of farming, like the agency’s expansive loan program.
But the most important thing young people need to know about farming is how “wonderful” the industry is, Bratton said.
“Eighty percent of our hires are from outside of ag, they don’t have any ag experience. They come in and they cannot believe what our industry is,” she said.
In the next part of our two-part series on farms in the county, Ashland Source will explore the rising costs of farming.
