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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s corn, soybean, and wheat crop budgets for 2016 include highly productive cropland in northern and central Illinois—land that may yield 20% or more above the national average (Schnitkey, 2016). Considering the current costs of production, budgets show revenues will be high enough to provide a return to land; however, profits will not fully cover the costs of average cash rent. This shortfall affects young farmers in particular since they tend to rent a larger proportion of the acres they farm compared to other age groups due not only to the high cost of good cropland, but also to the lack of availability and competitiveness in certain land markets (USDA-NASS, 2012). Although cash rents will likely fall given sustained low prices, these adjustments will occur slowly. The trend of increasing off-farm income and its growing role in farm household finances has enabled many young and beginning farmers the means to enter agriculture. It will play an even larger part in allowing these groups to maintain viable operations during this current period of adjustment. This is true not only in the cash grains sector, but also in other agricultural sectors in which income is moderating. Compared to earlier generations of farm households, off-farm income has shifted from a supplementary income source to an important risk management tool for young and beginning farm households, and the implications of this trend are only positive.

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