Part-owner farm operators are increasing
ITHACA, N.Y. Owning one’s
own farm - the rural version of the
American dream - is a way of life
that is being replaced by a dif
ferent, yet respectable form of
land ownership: part-owner
operatorship.
The percent of farmland actually
owned by farmers has declined
dramatically since 1946, while the
percent by part-owner operators
has been increasing steadily.
These are some of the findings
from a Cornell University analysis
comparing U.S. Department of
Agriculture surveys of farmland
owners in 1946 and 1978.
Demographic profiles, land
tenure, and occupations of lan
downers were examined by rural
sociologist Charles Geisler,
agricultural economist Nelson
Bills, and graduate students Jack
Kloppenburg, Jr., and William
Waters, all in the New York State
College of Agriculture and Life
Sciences at Cornell University.
Owners decline
In 1946, for example, individual
farmers owned 70 percent of the
U.S. farmland acreage. By 1978,
that number had shrunk to 52
percent.
“There is a striking decline in
the percentage of farmland owners
identifying themselves as farmers
and a precipitous rise in the
proportion of partial owners and
operators working off-farm,” says
Geisler, an assistant professor of
rural sociology.
The major mode of lan
downership also has been shifting -
- in 1946, three-fifths of all farmers
were full owners of their land;
today less than half are full
owners.
Thus, farmland increasingly has
been changing hands to non
farmers. The proportion of all
agricultural landowners who
identified themselves as farmers
fell from 65 percent in 1946 to 25
percent in 1978.
Taking other jobs
This dramatic change in the
occupations of farmland owners
may be attributed to farmers
taking other jobs while retaining
their farmland, and to nonfarmers
who purchase agricultural real
estate.
“In the past, business
professional individuals who
owned agricultural land rented it
to farmers; today, though, more of
these individuals are operating it
themselves,” says Cornell’s
Geisler.
Consequently, in 1946,10 percent
of the owners were businessmen
and professionals, owning 14
.iLieage; b>
19/8, 20 percent of the owners were
business-professionals, but they
still owned only 14 percent of the
farland.
Female ownership
The Cornell researchers also
found that although women owned
15 percent of the farmland in 1978,
compared with 11 percent in 1946,
men continue to control the bulk of
farmland in private ownership.
“Even though women owned
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more land in 1978, their land was
less valuable on the average then
in 1946,” Geisler notes.
One reason is that the actual size
of farm units owned by women has
declined over time and smaller
units generally are worth less than
larger units.
Another trend observed was the
“graying” of farmland owners.
The average age of farmland
owners continues to rise; by 1978, it
was 52 years, up 3 years over 1946.
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Although older persons often retire
from farming, many are holding
onto their land to a remarkably
late age as a hedge against
economic insecurity, Geisler says.
Rural migration
The net migration buildup of
people in rural areas between the
1970 and 1980 Census was ac
companied by a shift of older
people to the countryside. Thus,
there are increases in the
proportion of farmland owners
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