New bill in the Ohio House would provide incentives for local farmers

Driving through just about any part of Ohio, you’ll see acres and acres of fields on either side of the road. The trip is no different for me on my way to meet with Charlie Ellington. He’s a 32-year-old farmer in Stark County and I’m visiting just a few of his farms in Northeast Ohio.

Now, Charlie owns several smaller plots of land throughout Stark County that all vary in size and landscape. He told me it’s really common for new farmers to have their fields spread out like this.

“Really, the biggest thing for a younger farmer is you kind of got to take ground when you can get it to get a little bit bigger. And we try to take any patch that we can on the way from point A to point B to make it as efficient as possible,” Charlie said.

One of the reasons many young farmers struggle to make ends meet in the agriculture industry is the high buy-in costs. Right now, according to the Ohio Farm Bureau, older farmers are leaving the market at a much faster rate than new ones are getting in. They say this is happening because many farmers trying to leave the market can’t make enough money from selling their assets or handing them down to a younger generation. This is why Ohio Farm Bureau has helped to draft Ohio House Bill 183. This draft sets up several financial incentives if passed for existing farmers to sell to new farmers and provide financial training programs for those new farmers as well.

“I think it’s important that there be some sort of incentive because, otherwise, it’s all going to get parceled up and probably auctioned off some way, shape, or form,” Charlie said.

I rode around in Charlie’s pickup while he showed me around some of his farms as well as some of the more established farms in his area. Driving around, you could see the roads were narrow for even his truck, let alone the combine he said he folds up several times a day to move to his next parcel. One field, in particular, we came up to stuck out to me. It started out flat then had a steep 20 to 30 degree incline up to another flat plateau. I saw several spots along the incline had nothing planted just because it was just too dangerous to drive a combine on. He even said that one time he nearly lost control when the back end, where the steering is, came completely off the ground.

“This is one of those fields that I probably never would’ve taken if I farmed enough ground. The field right beside it is perfectly flat. When you’re scrounging up for ground and you’re trying to get bigger to justify some of the equipment and the expenses, you take what you can get.” Charlie said.

Farming has always been a part of Charlie’s life growing up and he said he hopes his next generation loves it as much as he does, but with the high costs to get in, he said he sees less and less young, new farmers.

“They know they can get a good degree and a good job working nine to five or whatever it is. Make a good living and enjoy things or life otherwise and that’s fine. Just like my grandfather and probably my uncles, I enjoy life by being out there and farming, but I still got to put food on the table for the kids and my wife.” Charlie said.

If House Bill 183 is passed, it would be incorporated into this year’s budget and provide tax breaks to farmers who sell to new farmers in Ohio.