With the age of producers in the state rising and the number of young farmers remaining low, some are worried about the future of agriculture in South Dakota. That worry grows after an especially difficult year to make a profit.
While crop yields have been up, price points to sell popular crops in South Dakota—think corn and soybeans—haven’t followed suit. That paired with unstable foreign markets due to trade negotiations in Washington D.C. has made it hard for producers to break even.
Rob Lee farms corn and soybeans in Kingsbury County. He called himself an optimist and said he thinks young producers should take the past year as a learning experience.
“In general, I like to think that people on the farm are a little more forward looking, where one year isn’t gonna discourage them too much. I mean, in the time I’ve been farming you can’t let probably one year stop you. [You have to be] a little more resilient than that,” Lee said. “So hopefully younger people are seeing it that way. Find this as an opportunity to find some resiliency, get used to being real tight with your numbers and tight with your balance sheet, become a good manager because of it but look forward to good things yet to come.”
However, not everyone has the same optimism.
Jeff Kippley is the South Dakota Farmers Union Vice President. He said he’s heard from young producers who are losing lots of money this year and thinking about turning to other industries to make a living instead of ag.
“You just hope that they can stay on and keep going. So, payments like this straight aid is so important right now to keep these farmers going. And somebody that’s coming out of college or high school, it’s not as enticing to come back to the farm right now,” Kippley said. “I hope the beef cattle prices being where they’re at will entice more people to stay in the beef [industry] and get that generation going because we’ve seen a lot of good kids, ranch kids, leave their ranch in the last decade with the low prices in beef. And so hopefully, we can start seeing those kids come back.”
Kippley references federal funding the government has authorized to farmers in response to unstable markets. Kippley said he hopes young farmers continue to “stick with it” despite the past season.
