A decade ago, the Hall County Cattlemen's Association Steer and Heifer Show was packed with kids of all ages from Hall and surrounding counties.

This year, there were still plenty of contestants, but fewer than a handful were Hall County natives.

"We did have four kids that showed this year and two last year, but for a year or two there were zero," said Steve Brinson, president of the association.

It's an observation of a rising trend across the nation's production agriculture industry.

In 2002, there were 16,962 farmers under the age of 25, said Kent Politsch, chief of public affairs for the Farm Service Agency in Washington, D.C. In 2007, that number dropped to 11,878.

For farmers up to age 34, it dropped from 123,000 to 118,000 in 2007, he said. With the farmers age 65 and older, however, their numbers jumped by 17.5 percent.

"It is true that the farming population is aging. I see that both in meetings I go to as well as looking at the demographics of the situation," said Scott Angle, dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at the University of Georgia. "It's also true we have record enrollment in the college. The conundrum is very few of our students actually return back to the farm."

A difficult start

Most of the students in the college did not come from a farm to begin with, and all students appear to find agribusiness, agriculture government policy and technology more appealing fields than cotton and soybean fields, he said.

This is a feeling Brittney Gunter, a member of North Hall High School FFA and state FFA vice president, is familiar with. She grew up helping her parents and grandparents work summer gardens, dairy cattle and poultry for Pilgrim's Pride.

"I did not realize how important the jobs that I thought were ‘stinky and nasty' actually were until I was a teenager," Gunter wrote in an email to The Times. "Agriculture was all around me, and I just took it for granted."

Only 1 percent of America's population is tied directly to agriculture, which is a huge change from that statistic back even 20 years ago, Hall County Cooperative Extension Agent Michael Wheeler said.

The gap is due to increased production efficiency - new growing methods mean fewer farmers can produce more food on fewer acres - but it does create a difference between the people who know how to work the land and those who want to get into the industry, he said.

"Youth can also enhance the farms of today with their knowledge of technology and maybe more efficient and productive ways to complete the task at hand," Gunter said. "It would be a win-win situation for all - the youth learn a lasting trade, the nation benefits and today's farmers will know that their future is in good hands, because they have been able to pass down what they know."

One way the industry is trying to help youth jump the hurdle of starting a new farm is with the Farm Service Agency's New Farmer Program, which gives entry-level loans, state Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black said.

"As far as the philosophically ‘how do we address this,' my perspective is we've got to be really strong in marketing and making sure agriculture's not over encumbered with the regulatory environment that inhibits entry," he said. "The main challenge you have in agriculture is it's capital-intensive."

Politsch estimated farmers need about 500 acres of land to be competitive.

"You take 500 times $4,000 an acre, that's $2 million just to buy the land, and you don't even have a house to live in yet, a tractor to do the stuff or a combine to harvest your crop. You don't have a seed or livestock," Politsch said. "If the farm hasn't been passed down through family, it's hard to start the business."

Politsch said most kids get involved in agriculture from the livestock side because it takes less land and it teaches more daily responsibilities.

New farming trends offer opportunities

The clearest area of opportunity for young farmers comes with the movement toward locally grown products, Black said.

"People are wanting more of a close relationship with the people who produce their food," he said. "That's where we're seeing some young people enter the business. With the (Mountain Fresh) Creamery up there in Clermont, that's young families that have been in the dairy business for years but they chose to vertically integrate. It also helps them demonstrate their passion of dealing directly with consumers."

Politsch said getting involved in organic and local foods does not require nearly as large a startup fund. A farmer can begin growing vegetables on only a few acres.

A portion of the issue can be solved with marketing, Black said.

"In a food commercial, when was the last time you saw a 21st century farmer? There's nothing wrong with overalls, but when we say ‘farmer' or ‘agriculture,' we think overalls and a pitchfork," he said.

But 21st century farming includes high-tech equipment, awareness of how important food is to national security and a positive lifestyle, Black said.

Brinson said one of the keys to getting more youth involved is to begin at a young age, in the classroom or on field trips.

"With the majority of society not growing up on the farm, they need to know where their groceries come from or where corn or tomatoes or whatever is grown," he said. "They need that exposure. Probably some time in their lifetime they'll need to grow something."

Lifestyle advantages could attract youth

FFA is one youth agricultural group that continues to flourish, as trends toward more science-based agriculture instead of production-based come to light.

"Ten percent of FFA's membership now is coming from urban FFA chapters," Black said. "People are recognizing that agricultural education is a great delivery tool for science and economics and work ethics. When it'll help you in your profession, that's really where the light comes on for young people."

The light came on for Andrew Evans, East Hall High School FFA reporter, when he was a child.

"You learn nothing from handing a cashier an apple and saying, ‘Ring me up,'" Evans said. "A good life lesson is buying a sapling, planting it and caring for it in order to produce your own apples. Lessons that come with learning how to grow or care for livestock can't be learned in a book. It needs to be hands on."

Bryan Tolar, president of the Georgia Agribusiness Council, said its important for agriculture to be able to "sell its lifestyle" when recruiting new farmers.

"The perception is that if you grow up on the farm and stay on a farm, why would you stay there? Why would you not want to leave?" he said. "We're not focusing on the benefits there are to having the lifestyle of being able to go outside and see the stars. ... Lifestyle to me is on one of the biggest advantages to agriculture production that no other job can give you."

Even with that, Angle said agriculture colleges can't flood the market with graduates who want to become farmers because of the shortage of land and the high cost required to start.

"That's the fundamental problem here," Angle said. "I don't think there's any shortage of people wanting to work on a farm. What we lack is the ability to make it happen."