70% of farmers plan to retire by 2025 but only 25% have a succession plan

The average age of a U.S. farm operator is 57, over one-third are above 64, and fewer than 8% are under 35. Nearly 70% of farmers said they intended to transition their operations by 2025, yet only one in four had a formal succession plan in place. The consequence is not abstract: when a grain farmer dies or becomes incapacitated without a plan, the operation's land, equipment, and grain contracts are frozen in probate for 12-18 months. Cash-rent leases lapse, custom-hire operators are not retained, and fields go unplanted for a season. The land often ends up sold to the highest bidder -- typically a large corporate farming operation or an investor -- rather than passed to the next-generation farmer who worked the ground. Between 2017 and 2022, the U.S. lost over 140,000 farms. The structural cause is that succession planning requires simultaneous expertise in estate tax law, entity structuring, crop insurance transfer, and FSA program enrollment -- disciplines no single advisor covers, and most rural attorneys lack agricultural specialization.