Economy brings new challenges to next gen family farms

This story was produced in partnership with Harvest Public Media, a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest and Great Plains. It reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues.

Mike Langseth’s family home has stood for more than a hundred years in rural Barney, North Dakota. It was built by his great-great-grandfather and has been passed down through the family ever since.

“Every generation has just sort of been like, ‘Well, here you go, you fix it now,’” Langseth said. “Every generation has had to do some sort of a fairly serious remodel, and make it theirs.”

Langseth’s farming journey reflects the family home itself. Passed down through generations, each one has had to navigate their own era of the farm economy.

Taking on the family farm, though, doesn’t happen overnight. Over the past 14 years, Langseth has been gradually taking over more of the farm’s expenses.

“Every time it stepped up to a bigger percentage of the farm, it was always a little bit of a financial stretch to have that money to operate on a bigger scale,” Langseth said. “Same thing when it came time to start buying the machinery. All of a sudden, that felt like a stretch. It was like, ‘Whoa, okay, now I got to do that.’”

Three years ago, the farm was finally his to run. He took control just as crop prices began to fall and input costs started to rise. It has been a tough time for the agriculture economy.

“You make or lose an awful lot of money just based on when you do or don’t market your crop or buy your other inputs, and so that’s challenging,” Langseth said. “I know there were tough times previously, but the market volatility has gotten significantly more than it used to be.”

A new farming reality

Most farmers are used to dealing with uncertain variables like the weather and market prices.

But now, farmers have to deal with shifting trade policies, including widespread tariffs, which have elevated the costs of machinery and other operating expenses. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz and other supply chain issues have also increased the price of gas and fertilizer.

Wesley Tucker, a farm and ranch transition specialist at the University of Missouri, said he’s seen more interest from farmers in setting up succession plans to hand off their operation to the next generation.

“In tough times, some people do go to survival mode, but some people are also more interested in succession because they’re trying to say, ‘How do I make this work so that my son or daughter has a chance to be successful?’” Tucker said.

A February farm sentiment survey from Purdue University and CME Group showed that only about half of respondents planned to grow their farm in the next five years. About 35 percent of crop producers and 38 percent of livestock producers said they planned to bring in another family member into the business.

Oftentimes, tough finances can make it difficult for new farmers to break into the industry, Tucker said, even if they really want to become farmers.

“It’s very, very difficult and hard for them because of the capital intensity, the amount of zeros they have to manage to try to squeak out an income,” he said.

Tucker added that it’s important for farmers to set up a transition plan early on to make sure the incoming owner is well prepared. He suggested connecting with farm transition specialists who can help with planning.

Mike Langseth, the North Dakota farmer, said his 14-year transition allowed him to afford more of the farm’s expenses over time, as well as learn the business. It was a departure from his dad’s experience taking over the farm.

“When it was time for my dad to take over, grandpa just left,” Langseth said. “Grandpa just didn’t come back for the whole year because he knew himself well enough. He knew he wouldn’t be able to help himself from stepping in and making the decisions.”

The passing of the torch

Rick Maier’s farm in Barnesville, in western Minnesota, turned a century old this year. It’s a milestone for Maier, who is 70 years old and getting ready to hand off the farm to his son. Although he’s not quite retiring.

“I go to my class reunion. I’m like one of two that are still working, you know. Everybody else is retired,” Maier said. “I always tell everybody you’re not going to really probably tell the difference if I ever do, because this is what I like to do anyway. Come out here and run the combine or whatever.”

Rick’s son, Andy Maier, is slowly taking over more ownership of the family farm, which grows sugar beets, corn, soybeans, sunflowers and wheat. To fully take over, the 43-year-old has to buy out his dad and uncle. But for that to happen, the farm has to be doing well.

“I don’t have a big savings account somewhere. It’s all pretty much tied up in the business,” Andy Maier said. “The extra money that we make, if we have a good year, it just stays here and gets reinvested.”

And lately, good years have been hard to come by. Andy Maier remembers when crop prices fell in 2018, and a lot of people, even his neighbors, quit farming altogether.

“People my age, they had a college degree,” he said. “[They are thinking] ‘Why am I out here working real hard and not gaining anything when I could just go to town and get a decent job at a bank or wherever doing something much easier, much less stressful, and make a decent living for my family?’”

Andy Maier grew up on the farm, but when he came of age, his family encouraged him to try a career outside of farming.

“If the ’80s farm crisis hit again, he would have had something to go do to fall back on a good job with a college education,” his father, Rick Maier, said.

Andy Maier spent three years selling fertilizer and seeds before returning to the farm as an employee. Over the past 15 years, he’s gradually taken on more responsibility and ownership – which hasn’t always been an easy task.

He’s had to battle low commodity prices, which, paired with high input costs, mean he has tighter margins.

The challenging economic situation means younger farmers have to be increasingly nimble, said John Shoup, an attorney and director of the Indiana Agricultural Law Foundation.

“The volatility has created more of a business-like approach to the farm,” Shoup said. “ It’s maybe a more business-like, professional approach than I think we’ve seen, not just in the last couple years, but certainly the last decade.”

That sense of change is something North Dakota farmer Mike Langseth has been feeling too.

“You used to hear stories about, like, the price of wheat would vary a nickel for the whole year,” Langseth said. “And now prices are going up and down wildly, based on a Tweet or based on the weather forecast in Iowa.”

Langseth said as much as he loves getting his hands dirty out in the field, he needs to make money to keep going.

“If you can’t find a way to make a living at it, then you can’t keep farming, and so that’s, I think, why it has to be treated as a business,” said Langseth.

Even though the way farms are operating is changing, Shoup said the emotional connection to the farm has not. That’s certainly the case for Andy Maier, who said the work gives him a sense of accomplishment.

“You have this system in place, and you were able to have this operation running smoothly and have fun doing it, and have your kids or grandkids, whatever, out there with you,” Andy Maier said. “It isn’t like the work of a day. It’s the work of not even a year. It’s the work of several years, decades, generations coming together.”

This story is part of “Tough Times,” a Harvest Public Media series looking at the economic stress that many American farmers are facing in 2026.