Nebraska Farmers Are Aging Out of Agriculture. That Could Be Detrimental to Soil Conservation Efforts

By Grant Winterer

Nebraska is undergoing a generational shift in farm ownership as more of the state’s ag producers age out of farming.

That raises questions for soil conservation efforts in the state.

Kalee Olson with the Center for Rural Affairs said she’s wary of how those acres will be dealt with when farmers decide to leave agriculture.

Often, farm acres are sold via land auctions. Those, she said, can make things difficult for smaller producers who may be more invested in conservation.

“Auctions generally go to the highest bidder,” she said. “So oftentimes, the operations that are able to pay the most in those auctions are the biggest.”

That means conserving the state’s crop land could be compromised. The bigger an operation is, Olson argued, the less time it has to consider anything but growing and harvesting.

“We have a lot of ground that needs to be planted or harvested, and a short plating and harvesting season, and there’s simply not a lot of time to think about conservation.”

Those acres are boiled down to profit margins for big agriculture, she said.

“A producer has to pay for seed, getting it planted, and it’s labor-intensive. A lot of them want to get in and get out, as fast as possible, which doesn’t leave a lot of room for practices that might involve conservation.”