Townsend, Montana | TheYoungGun - 5/4/2025 17:37
I know this question has been asked on NAT repeatedly but I thought I would share the results of a survey that was taken at a young farmer conference I attended recently.
Most of the attendees were 35 or younger and at the start of the conference we took an anonymous survey that asked questions about our involvement with agriculture one of which was, “Why do you farm?”
A lot of the answers were the typical “family tradition, want to be my own boss, love working with the land/animals etc. but to my surprise close to 40% of the people who answered said they were forced/pressured into Ag and now felt trapped. Do those results surprise anyone else or does that sound possible?
Not surprised. Guy I went to highschool with is a year older than me. Son of a successful farmer that started with nothing and is one of the biggest in the county. Went to college to be a petroleum engineer. Wanted to see the world. Sharp as a tack and can do anything he puts his mind to.
Came back to the farm to please his old man. He's a great farmer and will be successful, but he's stuck where he doesn't want to be.
As for why I farm - long straight green rows popping up from the soil, grain gushing out of the clean grain into the grain tank, and perfectly straight stacks of hundreds of tons of hay. If you know, you know. |
Why do you farm?
