News

It’s not going to be easy

Farm Credit Services of America CEO Doug Stark.

Beginning farmers and ranchers can take advantage of opportunities during a down economy.

The CEO and President of Farm Credit Services of America and Frontier Farm Credit says while agriculture is a capital intensive business, a challenging economy opens doors for new producers.

“There’s going to be folks that think this isn’t as fun as it used to be and retire and rent their farm out.  There’s others that may decide something to retire and sell their farm.  And, there may be the second and third generations that are not on the farm that have been renting that say, you know what–maybe land values have peaked or they’ve soften a little bit so it’s time to sell the farm.”

Doug Stark tells Brownfield it’s not easy, but there are some non-capital investments beginning farmers can make. He says going the extra mile to build relationships with landlords, knowing costs of production, managing risk and having a supplemental off-farm income do help.  “There’s not enough total revenue in a lot of these operations with beginning farmers to really cover all the expenses of the farm and provide enough money to really provide living expenses in today’s economy.”

Stark says beginning farmers also need to be willing to take risks and work with lenders that have beginning farm programs to get started.

Add Comment

Your email address will not be published.


 

Stay Up to Date

Subscribe for our newsletter today and receive relevant news straight to your inbox!