Farmland Assets and Growth Trends for Young and Beginning Farmers in the U.S

Ani Katchova and Mary Ahearn

No 211839, 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy from International Association of Agricultural Economists

Abstract: This study considers the issue of the transition and growth of new farmers into U.S. agriculture, by examining land ownership and leasing trends. Our approach is to characterize the entire distribution by farmer age and farmer experience rather than using young versus old and beginning versus established farmer categories. We also use a linked-farms longitudinal approach instead of a repeated cross-sectional approach to show trends over time in farmland expansion and contraction. Differences in farm size are more pronounced based on farmer experience than farmer age, as farms operated by older beginning farmers tend to be smaller and do not tend to grow over time. We find that it is mostly young farmers as opposed to all beginning farmers that rapidly expand their farm operations after entering agriculture. Our findings inform policy makers about the strategies that young and beginning farmers use to start their businesses and expand over time and suggest more effective approaches for targeting loan programs to young and beginning farmers.

Keywords: Farm Management; Land Economics/Use (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28
Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-ent
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:iaae15:211839

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.211839

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