Veteran Iowa Farmers Teach 'Up and Comers'

An agriculture program in Iowa is helping new and up and coming farmers learn from more experienced ones - and its organizers have uncovered another outcome they weren't expecting.

Steve Riggins and his wife moved to their Cambridge, Iowa, farm ten years ago. It's been in the family since 1855, but hadn't been worked in decades.

Riggins turned to Practical Farmers of Iowa's "Labor for Learning" program, which recruits farmers who've been around a while to teach those, like Riggins, where to start.

"They taught me everything from cutting hay, raking hay, working on machinery, moving cows, working in the dairy," said Riggins. 'They taught me a million different things I never would have had a chance to learn. And it was 10 times better than going through YouTube."

The program teaches beginning farmers practical, hands-on skills and helps them understand ag management practices and financial strategies.

It also gives those more experienced farmers some extra hands on their land.

Research shows roughly 10% of the nation's farmland will transition to the next generation in just five years.

Martha McFarland, farmland viability coordinator with Practical Farmers of Iowa, said while the Labor for Learning program is good for teaching the next generation, organizers were surprised to discover that the more experienced farmers are also potentially recruiting people they will pass their farm on to - as rural America undergoes a huge generational shift in land ownership.