Young Farmers

Reported by Statewide correspondent, Mike Tobias.

[Kelly Skrdlant] "If you get the heifers in first, I'll go dump those ranch cubes."
Friday morning on the Skrdlant family farm south of Bladen, Kelly lives and farms with his wife, Deb. Their farm is just down the road from where Kelly grew up. Riley graduated from high school last May. His sister, Ashley, is a high school junior. They talk about their diversified operation which includes corn, wheat, soybeans, milo, and cattle. They talk about the day's schedule, Ashley's basketball game and, of course, the weather. It's a scene you might find at any Nebraska farm.
Come on Mischief.
Riley Skrdlant loves working with cattle. He started showing cattle when he was 10. Bought his first registered heifer three years ago. It's what he would like to do for the rest of his life.
[Riley Skrdlant] "I think it's what I have been around my whole life and just kind of grow into it and get it, you know."
[Kelly] "Hang on a minute. What do we got in here?"
Chores like laying irrigation have been a part of Riley's life since he was old enough to walk. Two years ago though his role changed dramatically. His dad was injured in a farm accident. Kelly spent the entire Summer laid up recovering from a serious eye injury. Riley virtually ran the entire family farm operation.
[Riley] "I was the one out there every day doing everything instead of just following him around, chasing after him, you know, doing what he told me to. I was having to figure out what to do and when to do it and all that. It gave me a good idea."
The experience helped Riley realize this is where he wants to spend the rest of his life. But will that happen?
[Kelly] "I think he'd make a very good farmer, but it's tougher and tougher all the time for these young guys."
Kelly Skrdlant understands the decision facing his son and what pulls young people back to the farm. At first he taught school while farming part-time, but he always knew he'd be a full-time farmer just like his dad. Times have changed though.
[Kelly] "We did not have the supply then that we do now to deal with and our inputs were a lot cheaper. Gas and diesel fuel obviously this time of year -- or at this point in time, our gas and diesel prices are pretty high. But fertilizer prices and everything else was a little lower and our crop prices were pretty much the same. Equipment prices were much less than they are now."
That's what is scaring many young people away from a life on the farm. The numbers are startling. In 1982 there were more than 13,000 farm operators under the age of 34 in Nebraska. 15 years later there were less than 6,000. At the same time, the percentage of farmers over 65 has almost doubled to 24%.
[Riely] "I think there's probably one or two of us going back into production ag for sure. Maybe three or four of us at the most. I think everybody else is leaving the farm and finding something else to do."
[Dave Goeller, Univ. of NE Extension Service] "Most of it is the numbers. There just simply aren't that many opportunities where they can get in and make a living."
[Sen. Roger Wehrbein] "The optimist says there is some opportunities out there but it's not the way it's been in the past."
As part of a family farm operation near Plattsmouth, State Senator Roger Wehrbein knows firsthand about the challenges facing agriculture, especially young farmers. A year ago he introduced the Beginning Farmer Tax Credit Act in the legislature. It gives tax breaks to beginning farmers who want to buy into the operation of a retiring farmer. The bill passed and will begin aiding young farmers in January 2001.
[Sen. Wehrbein] "He could move into a going operation and it would be an incentive for the retiring farmer to keep it together and it would be an incentive for the younger farmer knowing that he would have a large enough size that he could make it."
Dave Goeller is another farmer working to keep young people in agriculture. He farms near Pender but spends much of his time consulting other farmers as transition specialist with the University of Nebraska Extension Service.
[Goeller] "I try to work with them to help them find out if there's a place for them in agriculture, to help them work on their cash flow, to tell them what financing programs there are out there, to help figure out what their family living costs are and kind of if there's a niche that they can find a place into."
Young farmers like Riley Skrdlant also benefit from the efforts of the Center for Rural Affairs, Nebraska Investment Finance Authority, and Farm Service Agency. These groups offer special financing, education, and other programs for first time farmers. Some say the impact of these efforts though is limited.
[Bryce Neidig, NE Farm Bureau President] "There is just so much you can do, you know. You can't buck trends. As farms get larger, they're going to continue to be larger and we can't stop that and we won't be able to stop that."
In the end, it all comes down to paying the bills.
[Greg Ibach, Asst. Dir. NE Dept. of Agriculture] "We're trying to address the profitability side of it, because if it is profitable, people will be attracted to farming so we're hoping to do some things to make farming more profitable into the future."
Some of the priorities that Ibach says will benefit Riley Skrdlant and other farmers include finding new export markets and developing new uses for Nebraska farm products such as ethanol for fully cooked heat and eat meals.
[Neidig] "We're going to have to do things differently than we have ever done. If we can't learn how to do things different and better then we will not be around."
Change to survive, that's the reality facing the ag industry including the 120 teenagers who attended the Nebraska Ag Youth Institute this Summer. It's a State Department of Agriculture program designed to keep outstanding rural youth interested in the industry.
[Ibach] "And we're hoping to encourage you during your stay here to learn a lot about agriculture, the current issues, the current opportunities, the current challenges and also look at maybe if you're not considering production agriculture as a career, maybe look at some of the peripheral industry-related opportunities that are out there in agriculture."
Years ago a room full of young people interested in agriculture like Riley Skrdlant would probably mean a room full of future full-time farmers. Now it's likely many will work in other parts of the ag industry, maybe farming part-time or not at all.
[Ibach] "When you're applying new technologies whether it's biotech or distance tracking or computers and combines and tractors and planters, there's lots of opportunities in agriculture and lots of excitement in agriculture."
[Riley] "You guys are going to do sugar beets?"
Part of the Ag Youth Institute is a farm management game. The teams are given a mock farm operation to run for three days making decisions that will make or break the farm. If the results of the game are any indication, Riley has what it takes to run a farm operation. His group made a lot of money. But Riley knows it's not so easy in the real world. Like the weather, there's very little that's predictable in agriculture especially for young farmers. For now, Riley will keep his options open. He'll take classes at Southeast Community College. He's even thought about studying to be a veterinarian. In the end though, he still wants to be a farmer.
[Kelly] "I want him to have something else to hold onto because who knows where this is going to be in 10-15 years. I don't know if we'll be big enough. I don't think we will. If we can hang on to what we have and keep our -- keep things lean, we can probably still be operating, but it's going to be tough."
The stats, the predictions, even the perspective of a veteran farmer. You wouldn't think this grim prognosis would bring any young people back to the farm. But for some, the decision is easy, much more than a matter of dollars and common sense.
[Goeller] "I'm surprised at how many want to come back. There's a large number of people that would love to come back and farm if they could figure out a way to do it."
[Riley] "I love it. I don't want to trade it for any city life, I don't think. A lot of people tell you if they could sit in an office and make money, they would. I would rather work from sun-up to sun-down for it and sweat it out."