Supersized Family Farms Are Gobbling Up American Agriculture

COLBY, Kan.— Lon Frahm may represent the future of farming. Inside a two-story office building overshadowed by 80-foot steel grain bins, he points to a map showing the patchwork of square and circular fields that make up his operation. It covers nearly 10% of the county’s cropland, and when he climbs into his Cessna Skylane to check crops from the air, he can fly 30 miles before reaching the end of his land. At 30,600 acres, his farm is among the country’s vastest, and it yields enough corn and wheat each year to fill 4,500 semitrailer trucks.

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Farms with $1 million or more in annual sales—only 4% of the total—now produce two-thirds of the country’s agricultural output, the largest portion since the U.S. Agriculture Department’s census began tracking the statistic in the ’80s.

The shift means food production is being increasingly handled by larger farms, which can be more financially secure. It also fuels a cycle in which size begets size, further transforming the rural economy. Smaller-scale farmers struggle to expand their operations to become profitable. Work becomes more scarce. Farm-supply retailers and grain companies are pressured, since larger farms use their size to wrangle better deals.

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Mr. Frahm estimated that farms of his size can produce $10 million to $15 million worth of grain in a good year. With that amount of production, well-managed farms can reap $1 million to $3 million in profit, even in times of low crop prices, he said.

A typical smaller farm selling just $500,000 worth of grain annually has over the past three years generated a 5% profit margin, or about $25,000, said Mark Wood, a Colby-based agricultural economist for the Kansas Farm Management Association.

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Rural demographics are moving in Mr. Frahm’s favor. The average age of a U.S. farmer is 58. Younger people are moving away, and over time more fields wind up owned by heirs in towns or cities hundreds of miles away.

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About 20 miles away, Bill Dible has raised crops near Rexford, Kan.—which has a population of about 230—for more than half a century. For many years, he bought groceries at the town’s supermarkets, sipped coffee at its cafes and shot pool at its billiards halls. As farms and related companies consolidated, nearly all those businesses have closed.

“This mega farmer deal, it’s killing all the communities,” said Mr. Dible, 84. “They make it tough on other people.”

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Mr. Frahm acknowledges big farms have brought changes to the community. But he sees his operation as an economic engine for Colby. His employees hold year-round, salaried positions with health care and four weeks of vacation. His longest-tenured employee started working for Mr. Frahm’s father on the farm 43 years ago.

He brings them on ocean cruises as bonuses and outfits them with matching white Ford pickups for work. He said he gives each one $1,000 each year to donate to charity. “These jobs offer a higher quality of life than if you were out trying to [farm] on your own,” he said.

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https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-family-farm-bulks-up-1508781895

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One has to wonder about farm policies. One size certainly cannot fit all