Source: PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY submitted to
FARM SUCCESSION AND TRANSFER DYNAMICS: SUSTAINING AN AGRICULTURE OF THE MIDDLE IN THE U.S.
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
EXTENDED
Funding Source
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1025585
Grant No.
2021-67023-33887
Project No.
PENW-2020-05131
Proposal No.
2020-05131
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Program Code
A1601
Project Start Date
Aug 1, 2021
Project End Date
Jul 31, 2024
Grant Year
2021
Project Director
Hinrichs, C. C.
Recipient Organization
PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY
408 Old Main
UNIVERSITY PARK,PA 16802-1505
Performing Department
Agricultural Economics & Rural
Non Technical Summary
U.S. farms that comprise an "agriculture of the middle" (AOTM) have gained recognition for theirimportant contributions to agricultural economies, rural communities and land stewardship. Butdespite efforts to support these mid-sized farms, their numbers continue to decline. With theincreasing average age of farmers, rising land prices, and formidable barriers to farm entry, thechallenge of transferring farms and farmland to a new generation of farmers has become morepressing. Our long-term goal is to develop a richer understanding of the relationship betweenattributes and circumstances of AOTM farms and their unique succession and transfer challenges inorder to improve succession and transfer outcomes, increase entry into this sector and decrease theirrate of decline. Supported by our research advisory group, our transdisciplinary research team willconduct mixed-methods research using national secondary data sets and primary data collected inPennsylvania, Minnesota and Washington to address four objectives:1. Identify characteristics of mid-size, and particularly AOTM farms, and any relationships betweenthese characteristics and farms' exit or persistence;2. Develop an in-depth understanding of succession and transfer challenges faced by AOTM farmsand the outcomes for operators, operations, and farmland;3. Identify, investigate and profile promising and successful AOTM farm succession and transferpathways;4. Recommend strategies for future research, programs and policies to address identified challengesand advance solutions.This project addresses Program Area Priority A1601 by increasing knowledge about obstacles andopportunities associated with the succession and transfer of AOTM farms from older to new orbeginning farmers.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
65%
Applied
35%
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
8036030308060%
6016020301040%
Goals / Objectives
This multidisciplinary study has the long-term goal of developing a richer understanding of the relationship between attributes and circumstances of "Agricutlure of the Middle" (AOTM) farms and their unique succession and transfer challenges in order to improve succession and transfer outcomes, increase entry into this sector and decrease such farms' rate of decline. Using mixed-methods research approaches that draw on national secondary data sets and primary data collection conducted in the states of Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Washington, the study will address four objectives:1. Identify the characteristics of mid-size, and particularly AOTM farms, and any relationships between these characteristics and farms' exit or persistence;2. Develop an in-depth understanding of succession and transfer challenges faced by AOTM farms and the outcomes for operators, operations, and farmland;3. Identify, investigate and profile promising and successful AOTM farm succession and transfer pathways;4. Recommend strategies for future research, programs and policies to address identified challengesand advance solutions.
Project Methods
Objective 1: Identify characteristics of midsize, and particularly AOTM farms, and any relationships between these characteristics and farms' exit or persistence. Methods include: 1) Collaborate with USDA ERS/NASS to obtain access to restricted ERS and NASS data and begin analyses; 2) Develop hypotheses and construct indices from regional-level data, in consultation with Project Team and Research Advisory Group; 3) Draft report of preliminary model results, while awaiting their review by ERS/NASS and in anticipation of their release; 4) Refine independent variables and develop further hypotheses to test, through ongoing consultations with Project Team and Research Advisory Group; 5) Draw on the integrated secondary data set and developing analyses to inform development of other field-based project research activities below.Objective 2: Develop an in-depth understanding of succession and transfer challenges faced by AOTM farms and the outcomes for operators, operations, and farmland. Methods include: 1) Identify and interview stakeholders engaged with AOTM and farm succession and transfer issues in PA, MN and WA; 2) Build lists of AOTM farms currently or recently engaged with succession and transfer in PA, MN and WA, striving to include substantial subsets of farms engaged with VBSCs and moderate-scale commodity farms producing a range of different crops in each state; 3) Design farmer sampling strategy and interview protocols, informed by Research AdvisoryGroup and Project Team, and as allowed, findings from Obj. 1; 4) Conduct interviews with 20 exiting or recently exited AOTM farm operators in each state, focusing on consequences for farmland, infrastructure, business assets, and operator(s), alongwith their succession/transfer challenges and successes; 5) Draw on data and analyses to inform Objs. 1, 3 and 4.Objective 3: Identify, investigate and profile promising and successful AOTM farm succession and transfer pathways. Methods include: 1) Query and analyze Obj. 2 data to develop a preliminary typology of successful succession and transfer pathways of AOTM farms; 2) Conduct follow-up interviews with selected farmers and stakeholders to gain additional insight on conditions, features and resources facilitating successful farm succession or transfer; 3) Refine typology and characterize key succession and transfer pathways in each state, distilling common and distinct elements for AOTM farms; 4) Develop comparative analytical case studies of AOTM farms organized by the pathways framework.Objective 4: Recommend strategies for future research, programs and policies to address identified challenges and advance solutions. Methods include: 1) Engage expertise and ideas of Research Advisory Group through bi-annual meetings to discuss research options, decisions and results from Obj. 1, 2, and 3 and opportunities for integration; 2) Inventory applicable programs and policies; 3) Develop the white paper on recommended strategies.

Progress 08/01/22 to 07/31/23

Outputs
Target Audience:Academic and USDA social scientists, including economists and sociologists; technical service providers, Cooperative Extension and non-profit personnel who are involved in supporting the Agriculture of the Middle sector and/or working on farm succession/transfer planning or implementation. Changes/Problems: Due to the Evidence Act, there are new federal protocols for restricted farm level data access that were implemented in December 2022. The new protocols require data requests to be submitted through a form in a SAP portal. We have been working with USDA NASS and ERS, as they, too, learn how to process these data requests. As of fall 2022, NASS requested summary statistics be submitted to them directly as Special Tabulations Requests, but as of May 2023, NASS is unable to process Special Tabulations Requests until 2024 (after the 2022 Census of Agriculture data are released). The learning curve appears to be steep for implementing the new SAP portal data requests, with moving goalposts, and there are several questions that we are working through.A prime constraint in the SAP process is that a pre-requisite to requesting the data is to provide a substantial amount of information regarding how the data will be used that is formatted in a particular way. This is an inversion of the process that we included in this proposal and formalized in the SOPO, so there is a mismatch that has arisen. We will continue to work with USDA to obtain these data. Ideally the request would be formally submitted in the next BP, but there are some challenges with USDA staffing and the 2022 Census of Agriculture reporting deadlines. The process of identifying and recruiting older, transitioning or transitioned farmers who meet our study criteria for interviews has been slower and more difficult than anticipated. We are now engaging in more persistent follow-ups with those we have contacted and also seeking referrals to farmers meeting our study criteria through a wider network of contacts. Hinrichs assumed emeritus faculty status at Penn State University July 1, 2023. A Research MOU with her institution ensures that she has the resources and institutional support to continue her PI role and research and management activities for this project in the no-cost year. She will be conducting interviews for the project, particularly in PA, and leading analysis of primary interview data. The two graduate students working with the project havemoved on to new academic and professional positions in summer 2023 (Hoffelmeyer [PSU] now at the University of Wisconsin, Butterman [WSUJ] now with Vermont Farm Services Agency). Both individuals will maintain involvement with the project. We are adjusting roles and responsibilities with Hinrichs picking up for Hoffelmeyer and Ostrom ensurimg the continuity, as needed, of Butterman's work. Due to lags with development of the farmer interview guide and start of farmer interviews and above mentioned challenges in secondary data access, we did not hold a spring RAC telemeeting. We anticipate drawing on RAC expertise more actively again in the final project year. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?PhD students Michaela Hoffelmeyer (Rural Sociology, Penn State University) and Olivia Butterman (Envrionmental Sociology, Washington State University) engaged closely with the project PIs in designing and piloting the farmer interview guide, conducting further stakeholder and farmer interviews in the 3 states, coding interviews, assembling internal reports and helping to prepare and co-presenting a public presentation. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?C. Hinrichs, M. Hoffelmeyer. J. Fitzsimmons, K. Ruhf, J. Joannides, M. Ostrom & O. Butterman. Succession and Transfer for Agriculture of the Middle Farms: Challenges and Opportunities. Paper presented at annual meeting of Agriculture, Food and Human Values Society. June 2, 2023. Boston, Massachusetts. PI HInrichs and Grad Student Hoffelmeyer presented preliminary project findings to the mixed academic-practitioner audience at this interdisciplinary conference. Other members of the project team were in attendance and participated in discussion with the audience What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Submit formal SAP request Obtain data from ERS and NASS Run and report on preliminary models using secondary data Submit models for USDA review and submit papers for publication Complete farmer interviews in the 3 study states, transcribe, code and conduct preliminary analysis. Conduct selected interviews with successor farmers of interviewed exiting farmers to identify key promising succession/transfer pathways . Engage Research Advisory Committee in 2 further telemeetings (Fall 2023 and Spring 2024) for feedback and interactive development of final products and project recommendations. Outline, draft and distribute project white paper.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Objective 1: Completed internal legal approvals for restricted access data request, submitted data request using now-outdated USDA data request form, submitted Special Tabulations request, drafted Paper 1 and Paper 2, designed summary statistic and econometric models and new variables to link mid-sized farms to AOTM farms, SAP Data request pre-submitted. Objective 2: A total of 27 national and regional (PA, MN or WA) farm succession and transfer expert stakeholders (educators, non-profit leaders, attorneys, accountants, etc.) were interviewed. All interviews were transcribed and index-coded. Preliminary analysis has resulted in an internal summary report, which we drew on to develop the interview guide to use with older farmers (mid-scale/AOTM farms) who are on the succession/transfer continuum. The farmer interview guide was also designed to correspond to relevant Census of Agriculture categories on farm organization/production/marketing) in the models being analyzed in Objective 1. 14 farmer interviews across the 3 states have been conducted thus far and transcribed. Objective 3: Based on preliminary observations from farmer interviews thus far, we have identified enterprise diversification as one prominent strategy among midscale/AOTM farms that have had more successful outcomes in succession and transfer. We now aim to determine how this pathway works similarly or differently, when the transfer is to a family vs. non-family member. To gain a richer sense of succession and transfer pathways, we are identifying successor farmers of selected farmer interviewees for possible future interviews. Objective 4: On October 31, 2022, we held a second meeting (on-line) with this project's Research Advisory Committee [RAC] (attended by RAC members Dr. Rob King, Ms. Christy Brekken, Dr. Kathy DeMaster, Dr. Jeff Hopkins, Dr. Christine Whitt and Dr. David Williams).We provided the group an update on project activities and research findings since the last meeting, and had facilitated discussion with the RAC about how to address measurement challenges, particularly with available secondary data, for the project.

Publications


    Progress 08/01/21 to 07/31/22

    Outputs
    Target Audience:Academic and USDA social scientists, including economists and sociologists; technical service providers, Cooperative Extension and non-profit personnel who are involved in supporting the Agriculture of the Middle sector and/or working on farm succession/transfer planning or implementation. Changes/Problems: All interviews thus far have been conducted on Zoom, rather than in person, for reasons of COVID concern and convenience. Zoom interviewing has worked well with these stakeholder interviews. We have increased the number and range of national subject expert/stakeholder interviews conducted for the project. We have done this to complement our national-level secondary data analysis and to better incorporate AOTM succession/transfer perspectives, strategies and challenges beyond those of our three focal study regions. We have sought to better incorporate diversity, equity, inclusion and access (DEIA) considerations into the study, in part through building the lists for stakeholder and farmer interviews in the three study regions, and also through connections with national level subject matter experts of color and/or from POC-focused organizations. We have incorporated DEIA questions, as possible, into our interview guides, to better capture how these considerations shape farm succession/transfer perceptions and practices. Consistent with debates in the literature, operationalizing the Agriculture of the Middle for the purposes of this study has proven challenging. We have learned that this concept is not widely or uniformly recognized by many stakeholders we have interviewed. In interviews, we have settled on describing this sector in terms of both scale and types of markets. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?PhD students Michaela Hoffelmeyer (Rural Sociology, Penn State University) and Olivia Butterman (Envrionmental Sociology, Washington State University) have worked closely this entire year with project PIs on multiple research activities (e.g., instrument design, sample identification, data collection and coding) and on project management and team coordination functions (organizing project management website, attending bi-weekly team meetings). How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Run and report on preliminary models using secondary data With guidance of RAC, draw on secondary data and analyses to design and conduct case studies of AOTM farms' succession and transfer pathways. Complete final stakeholder interviews, code all interviews and complete preliminary stakeholder data analysis to inform development of white paper for Objective 4. Finalize and pilot farmer interview guide. Finalize and implement AOTM farmer sampling strategy for the three states and conduct ~ 20 farmer interviews in each state. Code and analyze farmer interviews. Engage entire Research Advisory Committee in 2-3 additional telemeetings over the course of the year, with individual sessions as needed to draw on particular expertise.

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? Objective 1: Working contacts developed with key staff USDA ERS and NASS for determining data sources and access; data sets and variables identified; preliminary work completed to construct indices and develop hypotheses. Objective 2: 25 stakeholder interviews have been conducted. About 2/3 of these have been transcribed and initial flexible coding has been done. We anticipate completing 5-7 additional stakeholder interviews in the next month. We have developed a draft farmer interview guide and are assembling lists of prospective AOTM farmers in various stages of succession/transfer process in the three regions. We are finalizing a sampling protocol for interview selection. Objective 3: We have completed preliminary organizing of interview information and analyses from stakeholder interviews of varied farm transfer pathways. These will inform case study design and implementation. Objective 4: On April 6, 2022, we held the first meeting (on-line) with this project's Research Advisory Committee [RAC] (attended by RAC members Dr. Rob King, Ms. Christy Brekken, Dr. Kathy DeMaster, Dr. Christine Whitt and Dr. David Williams). We shared project activities and findings thus far and devoted most of the meeting to facilitated discussion about concepts, variable selection and research design for next stages of the project.

    Publications