Women farmers are often key decision-makers

Sisters Rebekah Alstede Modery and Sarah Alstede grew up on a farm in New Jersey. This year, they decided to also make their career there.

Rebekah graduated in 2023 with a double major in agricultural business and sustainable agricultural production from Delaware Valley University. When it was time to decide her next steps, it was easy to commit to staying on the family farm, she said.

“I grew up here and loved doing it, and I especially loved the business and marketing side of it,” Rebekah, 24, told CNBC in the living room of her childhood home, nestled on the property of Alstede Farms’ 600 acres in Chester, New York. Jersey.

Sarah, 22, had a similar connection to the farm: “All my life I knew I wanted to be here forever. »

She recently earned an associate’s degree in animal science with an emphasis in equine studies from Centenary University.

In February, the sisters joined their father, Kurt Alstede, and stepmother, Mary Thompson-Alstede, as co-owners of Alstede Farms.

With Alstede’s younger generation of female owners, the farm is now majority owned by women. Although agriculture is often considered a male-dominated field, some data indicates that women are often key decision-makers on farms.

There were approximately 1.22 million female producers, or farmers, in 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, or NASS. It’s still a male-dominated field: women make up about 36% of all producers.

Until recently, government data did not fully capture the role of women in agriculture, said Dominique Sims, an agricultural statistician at NASS.

NASS conducts the agricultural census once every five years. It updated its practices in 2017 to collect more detailed demographic data and ask more questions about who makes key decisions for farms and ranches. For its 2022 survey, it added another decision-making category: marketing.

“Women have always been a part of agriculture and have always participated in decision-making, but the Census of Agriculture hasn’t always asked questions,” said Shoshana Inwood, associate professor of community development, food and economical. at Ohio State University.

According to the 2022 Census of Agriculture, many of the women who worked in agriculture in 2022 were key decision-makers.

The category in which women are most involved is in daily decision-making, at 78%, according to the data.

Record keeping and financial management is the only area in which women are more likely to be involved than men, at 71% versus 70%.

“If you look specifically at female producers, these are the categories where they reported the highest rate of involvement,” said Lance Honig, chair of the NASS Agricultural Statistics Council.

Both genders are equally likely to participate in estate planning, at 53%.

As young women like Rebekah and Sarah take on key agricultural decision-making roles, they will need to be prepared to face a host of growing financial challenges.

Although the total number of producers in the United States has remained largely unchanged in recent years, farms continue to consolidate.

There were 1.9 million farms in the United States in 2022, a 7% decline from 2017, according to USDA figures. During the same period, the average farm size increased 5 percent, to 463 acres per farm, according to the agency.

About 23% of U.S. farms were in debt in 2022, down from 28% in 2018, according to the USDA Economic Research Service’s Agricultural Resource Management Survey.

However, this does not indicate a healthier farm economy, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. High interest rates have made it more expensive for farms to take on debt and created liquidity problems.

“Operating loans and other forms of financing will cost farmers 43% more in 2023 than in 2022 and are expected to remain high through much of 2024,” wrote AFBF economist Bernt Nelson.

Climate change and the resulting extreme weather conditions also pose an increasing challenge for farmers. Two of the biggest stressors are temperature changes and precipitation, said Rachel Schattman, assistant professor of sustainable agriculture at the University of Maine.

“Farmers are very good at thinking and they are very good at solving problems,” Schattman said. “Variability makes the problem-solving process much more intense and much more financially demanding.”

Climate change contributes to problems such as frost and freezes after long warm periods in spring, flooding or ponding, drought, accelerated crop development and changing dynamics with pest and weed pressure , she said.

Some farmers have the cash flow to directly pay for labor and equipment costs needed to alleviate such problems, while others may need to take out lines of credit at the start of the season, said Schattman.

“Large-scale investments, such as wind turbines to combat frost in perennial fruit orchards, require much more capital and are often financed through things like traditional loans,” she said.

In mid-March, Alstede Farms experienced a period of frost that threatened the life of new flowers, said Rebekah, who now works as assistant production manager in the fields. Warmer temperatures in early spring stimulated the development of apples, peaches, plums and apricots, putting them and early crops, including strawberries, at risk.

“We were outside with different tools trying to keep everything warm. We double-covered our strawberries and we had fans blowing, just mixing the air to keep it warmer for the apples,” Rebekah said.

Such efforts represent “a huge undertaking,” Mary Thompson-Alstede said. “We have people staying up all night to make sure everything is working and operational and driving tractors with heaters to move them to different locations on the farm.”

In addition to labor costs, the double layer of covers for the 22 acres of strawberries cost $25,000, Kurt Alstede said. “We have managed to protect them, but now there is an additional investment of $25,000 due to climate change.”

Sometimes risk management tools are not enough. Apple picking is one of the jewels of Alstede Farm, along with pumpkins, and both share a peak season that runs from early September to late October, Sarah said.

Last year, the farm lost eight of its busiest weekends in the fall to rain. Alstede Farms had to sell hundreds of tons of apple juice at 5 percent off the price, or 10 cents per pound instead of $1.99.

Sarah believes she and her sister have the courage to take on such challenges, having seen their family face difficulties.

“It definitely prepared us for what the future holds once we actually take over,” she said.