JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The age of the average farmer is on the rise – above 57 now, in Missouri – and Missouri lawmakers are anticipating a problem: As more farmers retire, fewer younger Missourians are joining the ranks.
State Sen. Brian Munzlinger, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, joined other agriculture-focused lawmakers — including state Rep. Bill Reiboldt, R-Neosho — on Monday to announce legislation that would create $12 million in new tax credits to help convince young people to take up the farming operations of their families.
“We must be proactive in addressing this issue,” Munzlinger said, noting that less than 5 percent of Missouri’s farmers now are under the age of 35. “My generation and those before have made Missouri agriculture a point of pride. Now’s the time to take real action to bring our young people and beginners into this industry.”
Munzlinger’s bill would create the Beginning Farmer Tax Credit, a tax deduction for the sale of agriculture property and establish “Beginning Farmer Centers” at University of Missouri Extensions, which are in each of Missouri’s 114 counties.
The tax deduction for the sale of agricultural land, he said, is in direct response to the application of federal capital gains taxes on the sales of farms.
“With capital gains taxes at the federal level, we need something to possibly offset those to give incentive to landowners,” he said.
Reiboldt, whose family owns a dairy farm in Newton County, said he supports the effort to get more young Missourians into the farming business. But, he said, he has tried to create a tax credit before and that adding another to the more than $500 million system is harder than it might seem.
“I don’t know how a $12 million tax credit is going to resonate with all of the legislators, but that would be the only thing I would look at,” he said. “Two years ago, we tried to get a $5 million tax credit for dairy farmers and we failed.”
Reiboldt said he is happy that the state is focusing on trying to lure more young people into the agriculture industry.
As he officially takes control of the House Agriculture Committee, Reiboldt said he hopes to pass a bill to aid his former industry, dairy farmers, this session. His measure would create a marginal insurance program that, in his words, would “piggyback on the U.S. farm bill to help dairy farmers weather the ups and downs.”
“It’s to help keep dairy farms in Missouri,” he said. “We’re trying to help people get started and keep them in business.”
Lawmakers are coming to the table with their own new proposals as Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, has been working on his own effort to lure more of the beef industry into the state. Nixon wants to see more feed lots and processing operations here to produce “made in Missouri” beef that he could market internationally.
Last year, a wide-ranging agricultural bill was vetoed by Nixon because of a controversial provision that would reclassify some deer as livestock (known officially as “captive cervids”). Similar legislation has been introduced this year, but Reiboldt and Munzlinger both said Monday they hope to produce bills this year with a smaller scope to avoid leaving poison pills in otherwise less controversial policy.