NEW HOPE—Barriers abound for beginning farmers.

Challenges include ever-increasing prices of land and livestock; lack of credit for financing; high interest rates; prohibitive equipment and infrastructure costs; and the pressure of development encroaching on available lands.

But some new farmers have seized their destiny by forming relationships and building sweat equity, earning the trust of retiring farmers willing to give them a chance.

Austin and Nikita McNett wanted to start their own agricultural enterprise in Rockingham County.

“The price per acre was so high,” Austin said. “And we don’t have that war chest of generational farming.”
They started sharecropping on rented lands. Because they lacked significant assets for collateral, banks repeatedly turned them away.

Then they were approached by an Augusta County farmer who was quietly trying to sell a farm in 2019. “He could have subdivided it,” Nikita said. “But he did want his set price.”

The owner financed half the land, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency financed the other half.

“Nobody co-signed the loan,” Austin said. “We robbed Peter to pay Paul, poured blood, sweat and tears to get where we are today.”

They were able to launch their retail meat business, McNett’s Angus Beef, plus raise feeder cattle and goats, manage a cow-calf operation, and grow crops. They’ve since procured another 52 acres nearby.

Roger Scott of Madison County, who farms cattle and poultry with his wife, veterinarian Dr. Amanda Weakley-Scott, first rented an underutilized 350-acre Orange County farm in 2013.

“I went and knocked on (the owner’s) door,” Scott said. “I told him we’ll bushhog it twice a year and take care of the fertilization.”

Unable to afford livestock, the Scotts struck a custom-grazing deal with 75 cows from another farmer and split the sales.

“We couldn’t get the loan for the cows, so we built up some equity, and sweat equity, and then we were able to transition to buying the cows,” Scott explained. “It was a perfect way for a retiring farmer to help out a younger farmer, so they don’t have to borrow a lot of capital.”

It takes time to build trust with long-established farmers, said Rachel Henley, Virginia Farm Bureau Federation’s working lands and state advocacy specialist.

“You’re not just going to buy land and then start learning,” she said. “Short-term contracts are a smart way to build a herd, farm experience and equity.”

See the full story with a list of farm transition and finance resources in September’s Virginia Farm Bureau News magazine.

Media: Contact McNett at 540-830-8396, Scott at 540-718-5176 or Henley at 804-290-1019.