Families are coming back to the family farm

The harvest is over, the spuds are safely tucked into the cellar, and hay for the stock is stacked in the barn. The family farm is ready for winter, but will that continue?

For decades, the children of baby boomers have left the farm for college and careers. With the average age of a farmer in Idaho in his 60s, who will provide our food in the future?

Sterling Hatch runs a family farm in Blackfoot, along with his wife, children and parents. He’s one of the rare young farmers, who stayed on the farm. In the 70s the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported the number of U.S. family farms fell sharply. For decades there was concern that the nation’s farmers would retire and no one would be there to take over.”It wasn’t anyone’s fault,” says Reed Findlay, Agriculture Extension Educator for the University of Idaho. ” There were other opportunities out there in the world. Lots of farm families were becoming affluent enough to send their kids to college. I think the kids went to college, got their degrees, and then wanted to use those degrees.”

Recently, the University of Idaho started noticing a new trend. Many of those career kids are in the 40s now, with their own children, and they’re coming back to the farm.

“They’re not doing it for the money,” says Findlay. “They’re in it for the lifestyle, and the great way they can raise their families.”

However, it’s nothing, if not impossible, to return to the family farm at age 40 and convince Mom and Dad ‘they’ need to retire.

“That’s what we’re seeing today,” says Ben Eborn, U. of I. Agriculture Economist. ” A lot of young people are coming back to keep family on the farm and the farm in the family. Even though the older generation isn’t quite ready to let go.”

“We have to let them know we’re still sound of mind and sound of body and we can make decisions and sometimes they think it’s time to step in, and it’s a difficult thing to talk about,” explain Jean and Boyd Schwieder. The couple is considering whether to turn their family farm over to their children. They say it’s not an easy step to take.

That’s why the University of Idaho created a farm succession and estate planning course.

“We try to be a mediator,” says Eborn. “That’s the hardest part. Getting the generations to talk to each other. Sometimes it’s three generations. How do we keep this business moving forward, but provide a retirement for two generations and a young family income.”

Some of the older couples have taken the U. of I. succession course several times.

“I think that’s the third time they’ve taken the class, but they haven’t done anything yet,” says Sterling Hatch, smiling. “I’m 40. It needs to be done.” Hatch says his grandpa didn’t quit until he was 100. “It’s hard to let go. Grandpa was almost 100. Broke his leg on the way in from the milk barn. They don’t quit.”

The folks taking the succession class know in their hearts they need to pass on the family farm. It’s just hard to let go.

“We’ve found at this age, change is difficult. You’re comfortable. But you have to change,” say the Schwieders.

The important thing is communication, which the succession classes help facilitate. The good news is, the family farm in Idaho is alive, and well, and growing, and changing.

“Idaho farm families will stay in the business. It’s amazing the kids that we see coming back. Not kids that dropped out of high school. They have college degrees and successful careers. They’re computer scientists coming home. 40 years old, they were off the farm and successful and they said, ‘I have got to get out of the city and get my kids back on the farm. We’re going home to raise our kids’. They want to teach their kids what they learned and you don’t learn it in the city or in a text book.”