Report: Fewer young people owning farms in Michigan
When Justin Williams was 10 years old, his parents brought home a cow.
That was the catalyst for the 16-year-old Perry resident to find his passion in farming.
His family operates Williams Running M&M Farm in Perry and he is a member of the Westside Misfits 4-H club in Fowlerville. The farm has approximately 50 goats and 30 rabbits.
"I really love having a farm and having goats and having animals," Williams said.
Still young, he wants to either take over his family's farm or operate his own in the future.
This goal comes at a time when farmland transition is uncertain across the state.
Among the 79,404 farm producers in Michigan, only 8,012 are under the age of 35, according to a 2017 Agriculture Census by U.S. Department of Agriculture released in April. A principal producer is defined as a producer who indicated they were a principal operator.
In addition, the average age of a farmer in Michigan is 56, according to the Michigan Farm Bureau.
"We've talked about it a little bit," Williams said. "I know I want to have a farm when I'm older."
But Williams may have a hard time, according to Roger Betz, farm business management educator at the Michigan State University Extension.
"I don't think it's going to trend to younger people owning the farms," Betz said. "Farm owners are going to continue to be older-type folks but there's still a lot of younger folks involved in agriculture and different segments in the industry. It's almost impossible for someone to start out and be a farmer. A lot of them are going to start as a part-time job."
A part-time farmer himself, Betz has three younger employees who work for him on his farm in Jackson County. He has also worked for MSU Extension for 35 years, spending the last five or six years covering Livingston County.
"There are younger farmers per se but they may be technically an employee of their dad's farm. There's certainly lots of that," Betz said about a possible caveat in the number of principal farm owners in Michigan.
In addition, the profit margin is slim for farmers, he said.
Earlier this month, Michigan farmers lambasted the Trump administration for its trade policies after China announced $60 billion in tariffs on U.S. imports.
MORE: Michigan farmers blast Trump trade policies amid new Chinese tariffs
"We are now currently in a fight for the family farm," Kathy Maurer, financial and international marketing director for the Michigan Soybean Association told the Detroit Free Press.
The tariffs will impact a wide range of U.S. products, including coffee, beef, salmon, flowers and some fruits and vegetables.
Some farm families make plans for succession
Marvin Oesterle, from Mason, owns a 3,700-acre farm with his three brothers, Brian, Bruce and Gordon. Their father Lyle started the farm approximately 70 years ago.
"We've done it all our lives so you could say it was handed down to us from a prior generation," Oesterle, 68, said.
The larger farm came together when all of the brothers combined their farmland into one giant parcel, he said.
Now, his nephews Matthew and David - who are both in their 30s - have plans to work on the farm for years to come, Oesterle said.
"They're working their way to learning the ropes and hopefully the plan will be to pass it on to them as we get older," he said.
Matthew and David are the only two of 12 grandchildren between Oesterle and his brothers who want to get into the farming industry.
Even though Justin Williams has a passion for farming, he said not many of his peers have the same passion.
"There aren't really any of my friends who want to take over their family farms," Williams said.
Farming is a difficult occupation to get, Oesterle said.
"The cost is such a huge impediment that it's difficult to get into farming without some type of a plan," he said.
Despite the downsides, there are upsides to the industry.
"It's a good place to raise kids," Oesterle said. "If you do a good job, you have the respect of your peers. If things break your way, you can make money doing it."
Patty Roeske and her husband Eric plan to pass down their 40 acres of farmland to their children. The land has been in Eric's family since 1960.
"They don't really talk about not doing it," said Roeske, 56, who is involved with Hartland Rangers 4-H club. Her children are Nicole, 36, Steven, 31, and Jessica, 26.
"This is my job," she said. "My husband has another full time job. We don't make enough to live just on the farming income."
Being in 4-H helped Roeske's children when they were younger.
"I think 4-H helped them big time with communication, being eye-to-eye with people, and they can talk with adults and not be too shy and unfamiliar," Roeske said.
Acquiring land can be a challenge
But having the skills doesn't mean purchasing farmland in the future is a given.
Livingston County has 86,141 acres of farmland as of 2012, according to the county's master plan that was adopted last year. As recently as 1997, there was 105,222 acres of farmland in the county.
"The farm economy hasn't particularly been the strongest in the past few years," said Dave Ivan, director of community, food and environment institute at the Michigan State University Extension. "It's more difficult for a farmer to buy farm land. As farmers age and look at going into retirement, other farms aren't in a position to keep it in agriculture."
Also, the amount of farm land available shrinks with the addition of solar array installations and increasing residential and commercial property development, MSU Extension's Betz said.
"It's going to take some land out of production," he said. "The dollars we're talking about are pretty attractive in terms of the value of that land. Not every farmer can do it. It depends on the grid and the power source."
Farm land becomes unusable if a solar array is installed on it, Betz said.
"It's a new use for that land; that land won't be farmed again without major costs to clear out those existing structures," he said.
Eric Roeske works full-time with the Livingston County Road Commission but plans to retire eventually to devote his time to the farm, Roeske said.
"It takes a lot of capital to become a farmer," Ivan said. "That, in many ways works against individuals who want to start fresh from an ag career perspective.
"When you work for a family operation or enterprise, it's not like you have a company match," Ivan said. "It's a different type of enterprise. I think different families make different decisions based on their circumstances."
Contact Livingston Daily reporter Sean Bradley at 517-552-2860 or at spbradley@livingstondaily.com. Follow him on Twitter @SbradleyLD.
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