North Dakota Farmers Get Older, More Prosperous

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North Dakota farmers on average are older and more prosperous than they were a decade ago, and running bigger operations, a new study shows.

The North Dakota State University study is based on the more than 500 farms of various sizes enrolled in the North Dakota Farm Business Management Education program, the Grand Forks Herald reported.

The study found that the median age of North Dakota farmers rose from 44 in 2001 to 47 last year. Median net farm income went from about $28,000 in 2001 to $174,000 last year. Total farm assets more than doubled to $1.12 million, while total farm liabilities increased only by 54 percent to about $442,000.

The median size of farms in the program increased 3.8 percent over the decade to 2,010 acres.

Last year was a particularly good one for North Dakota farmers, said Andy Swenson, the NDSU Extension Service farm management specialist who runs the program. Yields for many crops were among the highest in history, grain prices improved while the cost of producing most crops was stable, farmers received federal disaster payments from 2008, and higher livestock prices led to the largest year-to-year increase in beef cow profits in two decades.

“An unusually fortunate combination of events occurred in 2010 for North Dakota producers,” Swenson said.

There likely will not be a repeat this year due to the late, wet start to the planting season, though market prices for many crops are higher this year.