Agriculture is a Luxury

This may be one of the most personal and potentially controversial articles I’ve ever written for the Wyoming Livestock Roundup, and I want to begin with this – agriculture is a luxury.

I can already hear the responses – “A luxury? You think pulling calves in a blizzard is a luxury?” or “Fixing broken equipment we can’t afford to replace is a luxury?” 

Believe me, I understand. This industry is built on some of the hardest-working, toughest, most resilient people one will ever meet. There are endless challenges, sacrifices, frustrations and heartbreak woven into the agricultural way of life. 

So, when I say agriculture is a luxury, I’m not discrediting the work or the people. What I mean is this – the ability to stay in agriculture is becoming a luxury.

We are witnessing a complicated, multi-layered issue across the country. Farms and ranches are disappearing, and the young people who want to continue the work often cannot afford the land required to do so. 

Succession planning is at the heart of this. Many families struggle with how to transfer land to the next generation. Poor succession planning results in land being sold, lost or divided in ways which make agricultural operations impossible to continue.

Extension programs across the country work hard to teach good succession planning practices to help keep land in agriculture and out of the hands of corporations, but we can only educate – we can’t fix family dynamics. 

At the end of the day, it takes personal responsibility to ensure the next generation can carry on the legacy, and this is getting more difficult. 

Maybe a landowner refuses to transition ownership during their lifetime, leaving children unable to afford associated costs after death of the landowner. Maybe there’s no will. Maybe the division is simply unfair. 

Whatever the reason, I urge producers to take care of their legacy now, not later. 

Make sure agriculture remains in the hands of American people, not corporations or overseas interests.

On the other side, some children of ranchers and farmers don’t want to return. They’ve watched the struggle and don’t want the lifestyle for themselves or their families. Some simply have different interests. 

Making agriculture financially doable for these children and how to encourage and support children returning to the home farm or ranch is a whole other article, but it does leave us with another question – how do we make agriculture accessible to those of us who weren’t born into it?

Land is the number one barrier. Like me, my generation is renting apartments, working multiple jobs and barely keeping up with the cost of living. 

Starting from scratch requires land, infrastructure, livestock or seed and equipment, and prices are astronomical. 

Have you seen beef prices lately? Someone could pour their entire life savings into a handful of cows and still not have anywhere to put them, even with low-interest loans for beginning farmers and ranchers.

So, if readers only take one thing from this article, let it be this – to the ranchers and farmers who have no heirs and are preparing to sell their land, please consider another option.

Instead of selling to corporations or splitting land into small parcels, consider creating an application process for people like me – people who dream of owning and operating their own agricultural operation, who want to work, learn and continue the traditions of this way of life.

Give young Americans the chance to grow in agriculture. We are out here. We are willing. We are hungry for the opportunity.

My dream is to own my own farm and ranch one day. I work hard, I love this industry and yet I still cannot find a realistic way to achieve this dream. I am asking – pleading – for those who hold the keys to agriculture’s future to think of the next generation.

Take succession planning seriously for children who are born into the industry and give those not born into agriculture a chance to earn their place because the future of agriculture depends just as much on these choices as it does on any policy or president out of Washington, D.C.

Brenna Litynski is the University of Wyoming Extension agriculture and natural resources educator serving Albany County. She can be reached at blitynsk@uwyo.edu or 307-721-2571.