The average age of an aerial applicator is something like 53 or 54, based on one thing I read a couple of years ago.

I was told the average age of a PCA (people who make treatment recommendations in California ag) was in that mid-50s range.

Too few grads for many ag jobs means the average age of some support professions will continue to ratchet up and some posts will be increasingly harder to fill.

We're seeing more cases in the South where key Extension posts are being filled by people who did not grow up in the U.S. These are highly qualified individuals, let me add, but it does say something about the course of these professions when the pool of U.S.-born applicants is likely shrinking. 

At one time, farm families were larger, and the "excess" sons often went into ag professions when it was obvious there wasn't enough farm to go around. They became Extension agents or went to work for dealerships and such. Now, though, there are fewer farm families, and I suspect - but can't find supporting numbers - that the size of those families is smaller now than 50 years ago, if for no other reason than the fact that many farm wives work off the farm and choose to have fewer children.