It was a question that went all around the table. I was in Illinois with a group of Canadian and American farmers, and the discussion leader kept track of all their answers on a whiteboard.
Here’s the question. In the last 30 to 40 years, how much has your family expanded the number of acres you’re farming?
There’s a reason for the time frame, since 30 to 40 years is roughly equal to a career. So the question was really asking, how much did the last generation have to grow your farm in order to put you in the position you’re in today?
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Naturally, there were some outliers, and there was some scatter too, but not as much as I would have predicted.
But before I go any further, take a minute to figure out the answer for your own farm. Then guess the group average.
Got your answers? In case you don’t, let me take an extra minute to do a job that I too rarely do. As you know, ag publications are about as cyclical as farming itself. It’s why, during the winter, I often explain I’m just trying to hold myself together through what, in its way, is both our planting and our harvesting season.
Still, if the busy season comes, it also goes, just as fall comes to the farm.
As on the farm, too, when it goes, we get a chance to think about what went right and what didn’t go quite so right, and to celebrate the goals we achieved and pause over those we missed.
What I wanted to acknowledge is that none of it would be possible without the active co-operation of the farmers who talk to us not only about their farms, but inevitably about their families too.
I try to avoid inflated words, but really, their openness is amazing. Believe me, they don’t come knocking at our door. It’s entirely the other way around, and their generosity and their interest in helping the industry move forward is nothing less than a model to the world. They deserve all our thanks.
Now, back to our answers. It turns out that when you add the growth of owned and rented acres, commercial farms over that generation generally grew by a factor of four to 10 times, averaging about six.
The next question is immediately clear.
Do we still have to be on that treadmill? Obviously, a lot of very bright farmers think so, and they’re developing business plans to help get them there.
They believe robotics, telemetrics and genetics will make it all possible.
As for me, I think many of them will succeed, but so will well-managed smaller operations, especially if they deploy their business smarts more variously, both on and off the farm.
This summer, we’re going to put more thought into describing the agriculture of 2025. Care to make some guesses? Let me know at [email protected], and as always, let me know if you think we’re getting it right.
