Farmer of the Future: What will agriculture look like in 2040?

Some estimates suggest that just 5% of farms will produce 75% or more of America’s agricultural output by 2040. While the forces of consolidation and transformation are well known to industry leaders, the nature of the farmers of the future is open to speculation, according to new research from Scott Caine, executive vice president of Aimpoint Research.In this episode we talk with Caine about his company's research on the "Farmer of the Future," and discuss the trends and issues at play over the next 20 years.We do think farmers are going to decrease, and the number of farms are going to decrease significantly and by significantly we say by like 45% over the next several decades and it's not a loss as much as it is a change, Caine told Feedstuffs policy editor Jacqui Fatka last month at the Ohio Agribusiness Assn.'s annual industry conference."As, as all economies mature, there are changes in the marketplace and you're going to have some people who see that our value across the entire chain as a way of making things more efficient," Caine said. "It's a dynamic marketplace and what we're seeing are those people who are willing to step into it, look for the opportunities, find those because that's their disposition are the ones that we think are going to continue to grow, continue to be the dominant producers in the future, and will likely be part of that community that exists in 20 years where others will have been left behind and they're going to have to search for their marketplace."This episode of Feedstuffs In Focus is sponsored by Balchem Animal Nutrition & Health. If you missed Balchem's recent mini-symposium on methyl donor metabolism, you can watch a series of short videos recapping presentations held during the Florida Ruminant Nutrition Symposium: Visit BalchemANH.com/Florida to watch these short videos.For more information on this and other stories, visit Feedstuffs online.Follow Feedstuffs on Twitter @Feedstuffs, or join the conversation via Facebook.