Ag day at WTC talks of needed new young crop, as third of U.S. farmers are over 65

Numbers have dropped sharply in last 60 years, says Wisconsin Ag sec.

Families that have been in the farming business for generations need to keep up with technical advancements and market knowledge to be successful today.  

Wisconsin’s agriculture secretary Ben Brancel had that advice on Monday for students attending an Ag Day gathering at Western Technical College.

Brancel says no matter what kind of production farmers want to specialize in, they need to know where to get money to back up their plans.

The secretary says the potential number of future farmers has gone down sharply in the last 60 years. 

Wisconsin might have had hundreds of thousands of farm kids in the past ready to carry on a family dairy tradition, but now, it’s down to about 20,000 living on dairy farms in the state.

Another speaker at the event was Paul Dietmann, a specialist from Badgerland Financial. 

He said the average farmer in the U.S. is now about 60 years old. A third are over 65 and a vast majority of farmers in Wisconsin don’t plan to retire, so a demand for younger farmers will be needed.