Sort & Cull

REDFIELD, Iowa (DTN) -- A recent post on social media by a friend asked to add a line from a movie that fans of it would instantly recognize. One of my contributions was, "You can't handle the truth."

While that line came in a courtroom scene from one of my favorite movies with Jack Nicholson yelling it at Tom Cruise, it actually got me thinking about farming.

Many of us who grew up on a farm have seen both good and tough times. That is the truth. But what are we currently experiencing and can we handle these truths? American Farm Bureau recently said there was a 46% increase in farm bankruptcies in 2025. That's pretty sobering. Those of us who grew up during the farm crisis in the 1980s, when more than 250,000 farmers filed for bankruptcy, never want to hear about someone losing a farm.

For a few years I've personally been concerned about what's happening in our farming communities. Interest rates have been plenty high; input costs don't seem to come down when market prices do. Farmers have always been price takers, not price makers, which leaves those of us in farming to really think about all our decisions.

The USDA figures say that in 1980 we had 2.43 million farms. By 1990, that number had dwindled to 2.14 million and now we are at about 1.9 million farms. So, when I hear Chapter 12 bankruptcies have increased for a second year in a row, with 315 in 2025, it makes me wonder where we are headed.

Then we start looking at the number of farms in the United States and the movement toward consolidation. There was a decrease of 15,000 farms in 2025. While less than 10% of farms control over half of the country's farmland, we have seen a decrease of 158,200 farms since 2018.

The current state of the agricultural industry and farming losses didn't start this year; it's been a steady decrease over time. Nearly half the farms in the U.S. generate less than $10,000 in annual sales. These are hobby farms and part-time operations, which is what category my farm would fall into.

My kids are the sixth generation to be raised on our farm. We are very proud of that fact. But the reality is we don't plow and plant the ground anymore, someone else does. We can't afford to. The price of equipment, seed, fertilizer, fuel and other inputs makes it foolish for us to even try. We do have enough ground and equipment to have a small cow herd. That I refuse to give up on.

A conversation recently with a friend made me realize this is also the feeling of those whose operations are four times the size of ours. They, too, must collaborate with neighbors to have buying power to bring input costs down to try to survive. The dream of being a farmer dwindles with each generation, yet the world still needs to eat.

I'm not sure what the answer is when reading these facts. What's the future for the small farmer? Those of us in farming will keep fighting for our legacy, for tilling the land, for raising the population's food, even if we have a hard time handling the truth ... we will keep fighting.

Also see: "US Farm Numbers Drop 8% Since 2018," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

Jennifer Carrico can be reached at jennifer.carrico@dtn.com

Follow her on social platform X @JennCattleGal

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