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Challenges and opportunities for younger farmers

Young farmers continue to face challenges and opportunities in the agriculture industry.

John Bolte operates a grain farm, pumpkin operation, and event venue in Seneca County, Ohio.

“As a young farmer, we haven’t had a great opportunity to get our feet wet. In the last couple of years we’ve had great crops, great prices for our finished commodity, and great weather in northwest Ohio,” he says. “The hope is that continues but you learn from the good years and hopefully carry that into the bad years. We have to be prepared for something to not go our way.”

Loren Hulit raises corn, soybeans, wheat, hay, and beef cattle in Richland County. He says similar issues are top of mind for 2023.

“Weather is the biggest thing. It’s been relatively dry through the fall and hopefully that can carry into winter and spring. As far as inputs and availability I think things are kind of stagnant,” he says. “Maybe availability has improved, but I don’t think input costs have come down a whole lot.”

Bolte says younger farmers must continue to pay attention to input costs.

“For the first time I saw a number four in front of a bag of seed corn, so seed costs are continuing to creep higher. Herbicide costs are going to as well, but I’ve seen a little bit of a break in fertilizer costs,” he says. “More than anything else the cost of money is now higher than it’s been in my career and I think it’s something the younger generation has to pay attention to.”

Hulit says, “the raw cost to operate with interest is top of mind. There’s very few farmers that operate on cash, so operating loans that come around each year and interest rates make it challenging. We’re going to have to make up money somewhere.”

Brownfield interviewed Bolte and Hulit during the 104^th Ohio Farm Bureau Annual Meeting.