Source: NCDA&CS, 9/15/15

Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler sits down each week with Southern Farm Network’s Rhonda Garrison to discuss “Today’s Topic.”

A recent survey by USDA showed that almost half of North Carolina’s 8 million acres of farmland are rented out.

The 2014 Tenure, Ownership and Transition of Agricultural Land survey showed there are more than 3.6 million acres of farmland rented out by landlords in North Carolina.
Cropland made up 84 percent of rented farmland, and 9 percent of the acres were rented for pastures. The rest consisted of acres rented for forests and other land uses.

The report also showed there are almost 75,000 landlords renting out farmland in North Carolina. So there are more farm landlords than there are farmers.

Here’s another interesting fact: About 35 percent of these landlords never farmed.
The rising cost of buying land seems to have created more interest in renting, Commissioner Troxler says .
Two other items of note in the report:
• On average, landlords are almost 67 years old, making them older than the average North Carolina farmer. The average age of farmers in the state is 58.9.
• Landlords expect to transfer more than 705,000 acres of farmland to different owners in the next five years. Of that number, about 322,000 acres are expected to be sold to non-relatives, which Commissioner Troxler says could lead to the loss of productive farmland to other uses.