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by Annie Cunningham

Young farmers and ranchers this year expressed an unprecedented high level of optimism regarding their futures in agriculture, but said they continue to be challenged by overall profitability and would like to see the government do more to help young people just starting out in farming.

The 12th annual survey of participants in the American Farm Bureau Federation’s Young Farmer and Rancher (YF&R) Program revealed that 81 percent of the respondents said they were more optimistic about agriculture than five years ago – up more than 20 percent from last year and the highest level of optimism since the survey’s inception in 1993.

Franklin County young farmer Neall Weber, 30, agrees with the majority. "Prices for livestock and commodities are overall higher than they’ve been in five years," Weber said. "You gotta be optimistic. Agriculture is my future – at least in some facet."

That optimism was evident throughout this year’s survey of 342 young farmers and ranchers from 45 states, ages 18 to 35. Overall, the survey revealed that young farmers and ranchers are committed to their mission of providing food, fiber and fuel for the nation, while they care for the environment and invest in new technology to sharpen their business skills for today’s competitive world.

For the sixth straight year the young agriculturists said the biggest challenge facing them is overall profitability with nearly 19 percent ranking it as the biggest challenge. However that's down from almost 32 percent last year. And, for the first time ever, the young farmers said providing help to beginning farmers and ranchers was the best way the government could help.

Weber said his profitability could be helped if two key issues promoted by Farm Bureau could be resolved: an energy bill and fair trade. "We’ve been stalling on the energy bill for too long now. It’s eventually going to open markets for the farmers," Weber said. "The United States needs to keep working on securing free trade. New markets for Ohio farm products can only aid young persons trying to start a farm operation."

Muskingum County young farmers Rob and Bobbi Vernon said their diversified operation helps keep them profitable. "We’ve got many sources of income and all of those combined make farming viable for us. We raise hay, corn, soybeans, a few beef cattle and horses. We try to not have all our eggs in one basket," said Rob, 33.

Weber encourages new farmers to look into niche markets to supplement traditional farming. "Our hay sales to horse owners has sometimes helped keep our head above water when commodity prices were low," Weber said.

In the survey, the young farmers indicated that limited availability of land and other resources was their second highest challenge. Third on this year's list of challenges was the cost of government regulations. Within the survey's 12-year history, profitability has topped the list of concerns nine times and regulations three times.

The fourth biggest challenge on this year's list was availability of healthcare. Fifth on the list was urban encroachment on farmland, followed by challenges related to parental control of farm decisions, the availability of water and agricultural financing. Competition from more established farms finished in ninth place. Labor issues, aftereffects of the U.S. bovine spongiform encephalopathy incident and tax burdens rounded out the list.

Rob Vernon said education of consumers will be the biggest challenge in the future. "The overall perception of farmers is good, but the perception of our practices varies. As technology advances, it will be important for us to educate the customers about why we do the things we do," he said.