What is it like for young farmers today?
Casi Long tells us what it is like to be a young farmer that does not come from a farming family.
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Emma Halsey
Aired; January 8th, 2024.
Many young people are less motivated to take over family farms, let alone go out and purchase their own farm. According to the 2017 US Census of Agriculture (USDA 2019), the average age of farmers in Pennsylvania was 57 years old and that number has only gone up. With only 14% of farmers being 35 and younger that year.
However, Pennsylvania is leading the US in the population of younger farmers, the numbers are still dwindling. Casi Long and her family took over Kolbs Family Farm in 2021 as a young family that was inspired to work in agriculture and has been running it successfully ever since. I got the chance to speak with Casi this past Friday about Kolbs and how she got her start in agriculture as a younger farmer herself.
Casi got started in farming through an agriculture 4H program when she lived in Maryland. She also worked on a farm as she grew up. She says it is helpful that she came from a consumer side of things because that helped her bring in a fresh perspective to farming. Coming from a family that wasn’t originally a farming family, she had to create her own support system to keep her going. Casi also got a college degree in large animal science from Delaware Valley University.
She says if you are new to farming to “just keep going” and “keep working hard.”
Casi Long is the owner of Kolbs farm and Kolbs farm store in Spring City PA and spoke to us on The Spark Monday about owning Kolbs and getting her start in farming. If you want to learn more about Kolbs or are interested in trying their famous chocolate milk, check out their Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/Kolbs.Farmstore/
