With the economic recovery underway, farmers are eager to invest in their farms.
They want to increase their land holdings and make sure their crops and animals get the most bang for their buck.
And they’re ready to get in on the ground floor.
But there’s a catch.
A lot of these investments won’t be fully realized until 2020.
What to know about farm investments and farm land-buying policies, from how to determine the value of land to when to buy, is at the center of this article.
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The farm economy has evolved over the last decade, from one that relied heavily on large-scale farm machinery and large-size farm equipment to one that is more reliant on small-scale, smaller-scale farms.
The number of farms in the United States has grown from 2.5 million in 2000 to 3.1 million in 2015, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
That number includes more than 4 million farms that are small- or medium-scale.
Small-scale farmers have seen their land prices increase by more than 40 percent since 2000, while the average annual increase for farms with fewer than 500 employees has increased by only about 15 percent.
Small-scale farming employs about one-quarter of the nation’s workforce.
But it is growing rapidly.
The average annual growth rate for farms that have more than 500 workers is nearly 50 percent over the past three decades.
The economic recovery has been strong for small- and medium-sized farms, as the U