Farmland costs rise, pricing young farmers out of the market as age of farmers increase

foxbusiness.com:

There's plenty of young people interested in starting a career in farming. A farmer needs land, but buying land is more expensive than ever.

The cost of farmland rose over 7% this year, pricing many farmers out of the market. This comes as the U.S. deals with an aging farmer population, causing many to wonder who will grow the next generation’s food supply.  

In Iowa, the Shivers Farm has been producing beef and pork for six decades. 

«The corn that we grow, this corn, will go right back into the cattle along with the hay,» Emily Shivers said. «It's hard work. But we feed you. We feed America.» 

Midwest farmers have been dealing with a severe drought in Spring and Summer and now costs are adding pressure. They’d love to buy more land, but the prices are becoming unaffordable, and developers are turning farmland into neighborhoods.  

«There’s some ground just right over here, behind our farm, that butts up to our farm that sold for 25-$30,000 an acre. Just last year. It's hard. We can't compete with that. Developers can compete with that, but we as farmers can't,» Shivers said. 

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«I want them to know where their food comes from, which is grown on the land. It's grown, you know on family farms like this,» Shivers said. In 2020, she started posting on social media when they had meat to sale. Since then she's been trying to prom (Mills Hayes/Fox News / Fox News)

USDA data shows the average price of farmland in the US is $4,080 dollars per acre. In Iowa? $9,930. In California, it’s $12,400. And in New Jersey, an acre of land goes for about $17,700. 

More than 80% of the worlds corn and soybeans comes from Midwest farms. Prices for corn