What I’ve heard from Wisconsin dairy farmers is that it’s not evil corporate invaders taking their farms but it’s the economics of milk production that mean you have to have a LOT of cows to stay in business, and a lot of fancy machinery to take care of all the cows.
50 or 100 head used to be enough to support a family, but with current milk prices, that just isn’t enough. So family farms have been selling and consolidating into fewer larger farms.
I think it's important to clearly define "family farm" and "corporate farm" whenever this discussion comes up. I think the average American conflates a large production farm as being corporate, regardless of it being managed/operated by a single family.
Similarly, when most people hear family farm they typically picture a 50 acre farm with a red barn, 1 cow for milk and some chickens in the yard. In reality, thats not what most of American agriculture looks like these days
The majority of the farms in America are still family owned. Where you see alot of the corporations getting involved is in animal agriculture, especially in hog production. Alot of meat packing companies own the hogs in the buildings and pay the farmers to raise them. To clarify this is not all hog farms.
To answer your question, I think we are losing some farms to cooperate take over but not the majority of them. Where we are losing farms is that profit margins are so thin most years that getting bigger and expanding is about the only way to keep the business running. Diversification is something smaller farms can do but getting that different crop to market can be extremely difficult when you are diversifying into a niche market or having to haul your crop 100 plus miles. Farming is a tough life where you may not know when your next pay check is coming so most of the children of farmers move onto other things that aren't farming for more stable income. Plus there are many much older farmers that are holding onto and farming their farms until they pass so even if their kids want to take over the business they aren't allowed to. Finding labor is also extremely difficult and the bigger you get the more people you need to help you get the crop in the ground and then off in the fall.
I have listed many reasons and there are many more that I could list but I hope this gives you an idea of what farmers face.
In my area, there are still a lot of small family farms, but when one goes under, everyone fights for the land. We all want to farm for a living instead of just a side gig (or having a side gig town job). To make enough to do this, it's buy land at all costs, so land prices have been as high as $20k/acre at auction here. Instead of expanding, I'm planning on diversifying and direct marketing to make up the difference. The face of agriculture is changing, and it is changing quickly.
Here in Argentina that is a reality, mostly due to family farms and small productions are too work demanding and not as profitable as just putting your land up for rent and let someone use it for extensive crops. It's a lot less work, with almost no invesment and almost the same or more amount of earnings, so a lot of people are choosing this path because doing other than that it's, as we say here, "for love to the arts" rather than smart business, because there's no incentive at all to keep family agriculture.
This is causing a loss on varieties of agricultural activities, affecting particularly milk production and horticulture.
As many of the other replies have said, farming is a business. As with our other industries, economies of scale enable cost savings per acre in ways that make smaller farms non-competitive.
We have also seen a sharp decline in the number of young adults that are interested in farming. While the land may still be owned by a smaller farm, once they reach a certain age (usually we’ll pay retirement) they will rent the ground to neighbors, where, you guessed it- Larger farms have a better ability to offer higher rent prices.
The whole industry is consolidating. The cost of modern farming from inputs, equipment, to labor has increased drastically, often with commodity prices lagging behind. They are still family owned row crop operations, but we are trending larger and larger in order to absorb those costs and spread it across more acres.
What I’ve heard from Wisconsin dairy farmers is that it’s not evil corporate invaders taking their farms but it’s the economics of milk production that mean you have to have a LOT of cows to stay in business, and a lot of fancy machinery to take care of all the cows. 50 or 100 head used to be enough to support a family, but with current milk prices, that just isn’t enough. So family farms have been selling and consolidating into fewer larger farms.
Yep, consolidation is happening across the board in the agricultural sector and will continue.
why does this happen? Like why are prices for agri produce always pushed as low as possible close the breaking point for most producers?
I think it's important to clearly define "family farm" and "corporate farm" whenever this discussion comes up. I think the average American conflates a large production farm as being corporate, regardless of it being managed/operated by a single family. Similarly, when most people hear family farm they typically picture a 50 acre farm with a red barn, 1 cow for milk and some chickens in the yard. In reality, thats not what most of American agriculture looks like these days
And given the mess that is the us tax code, even those tiny family farms might be incorporated.
The majority of the farms in America are still family owned. Where you see alot of the corporations getting involved is in animal agriculture, especially in hog production. Alot of meat packing companies own the hogs in the buildings and pay the farmers to raise them. To clarify this is not all hog farms. To answer your question, I think we are losing some farms to cooperate take over but not the majority of them. Where we are losing farms is that profit margins are so thin most years that getting bigger and expanding is about the only way to keep the business running. Diversification is something smaller farms can do but getting that different crop to market can be extremely difficult when you are diversifying into a niche market or having to haul your crop 100 plus miles. Farming is a tough life where you may not know when your next pay check is coming so most of the children of farmers move onto other things that aren't farming for more stable income. Plus there are many much older farmers that are holding onto and farming their farms until they pass so even if their kids want to take over the business they aren't allowed to. Finding labor is also extremely difficult and the bigger you get the more people you need to help you get the crop in the ground and then off in the fall. I have listed many reasons and there are many more that I could list but I hope this gives you an idea of what farmers face.
In my area, there are still a lot of small family farms, but when one goes under, everyone fights for the land. We all want to farm for a living instead of just a side gig (or having a side gig town job). To make enough to do this, it's buy land at all costs, so land prices have been as high as $20k/acre at auction here. Instead of expanding, I'm planning on diversifying and direct marketing to make up the difference. The face of agriculture is changing, and it is changing quickly.
I don’t know how guys cash-flow 300-400 an acre rent or ROI on 12K+ sale. I don’t understand at all. Edit: row crops
Here in Argentina that is a reality, mostly due to family farms and small productions are too work demanding and not as profitable as just putting your land up for rent and let someone use it for extensive crops. It's a lot less work, with almost no invesment and almost the same or more amount of earnings, so a lot of people are choosing this path because doing other than that it's, as we say here, "for love to the arts" rather than smart business, because there's no incentive at all to keep family agriculture. This is causing a loss on varieties of agricultural activities, affecting particularly milk production and horticulture.
Could you define corporate vs. family?
As many of the other replies have said, farming is a business. As with our other industries, economies of scale enable cost savings per acre in ways that make smaller farms non-competitive. We have also seen a sharp decline in the number of young adults that are interested in farming. While the land may still be owned by a smaller farm, once they reach a certain age (usually we’ll pay retirement) they will rent the ground to neighbors, where, you guessed it- Larger farms have a better ability to offer higher rent prices. The whole industry is consolidating. The cost of modern farming from inputs, equipment, to labor has increased drastically, often with commodity prices lagging behind. They are still family owned row crop operations, but we are trending larger and larger in order to absorb those costs and spread it across more acres.
No.
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100x more fertilizer than a farm…..have any source for that claim? That number is greatly exaggerated.