Funds For Beginning Farmers and Net Farm Income Higher

**The USDA is spending nearly $28 million to support organizations that teach and train beginning farmers and ranchers, including programs for U.S. veterans who are entering into agricultural careers and starting new farming businesses.

The funding supports the National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program.

The effort to support young agriculturalists comes as a third of the 3.4 million U.S. farmers are over the age of 65.

**The USDA’s National Ag Statistics Service mailed survey codes to a selected sample of irrigators across 50 states looking for responses to the 2023 Irrigation and Water Management Survey.

The survey is part of the 2022 Census of Agriculture and provides the only comprehensive dataset of irrigation activities and water use across American ag operations.

Producer input will aid USDA’s efforts to promote efficient irrigation practices and long-term sustainability of water resources.

**The U.S. saw growth of almost 31% in net farm income from 2021 through 2022.

The top two agricultural states with the highest NFI include Texas, the highest NFI growth at 65%, followed by Minnesota at 55.7%.

California, Iowa, and Illinois rounded out the top five.

Other states with strong growth include Idaho, Georgia, Florida and North Dakota.

Kansas and Washington NFI fell 23% and 28%, respectively.