More than 20 percent of all farmers are young or beginning farmers (farming for less than 10 years). Yet the number of young farmers is not keeping pace with the number of farmers aging out of the field.
Factors limiting young people in production agriculture are: land prices, availability of farmland, limited health care options, among other things.
Farmers over 65 years outnumber farmers under 35 years by more than six to one. The average age of farmers has been steadily increasing and is now 59 years.