Farming's New Anthem: She-I-O

As nursery rhymes go, Old MacDonald Had a Farm is one of the newer ones, going back to around 1917. The opening lines put agriculture in perspective back in the day, “Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O; And on his farm he had a cow, E-I-E-I-O . . . .” Fast forward to today and numbers show the average farmer in the U.S. is white, male and nearly 60-years old, according to 2017’s census of Agriculture, released every five years. They say farming gets in one’s blood and there’s no leaving. A farmer in his mid to late 70s may ask, “What does that 58-year old kid up the road know about farming?”

The Ag census had a big surprise. While women have been a big part of agriculture and farming for centuries, it was mostly behind-the-scenes. The census shows the number of female farmers in the U.S. has tripled in the last 30-years. Female ranchers and farmers increased almost 27% from 2012 to 2017, to around 1.23 million. Women now represent 36% of all farmers. Many are directly involved in making day-to-day decisions, as well as record-keeping and financial management.