“When I graduated high school, this was the last thing on earth I ever wanted to do,” Kopp said. “I never wanted to come back to the farm.”

But she said it was the quality of life and opportunity to work for herself – to have job flexibility, freedom and a sense of ownership of her work product – that led her to eventually say yes to full-time farming.

Wacey Dahl, 26, was always drawn to farming and ranching. He figures he’s been farming since about age 5 or 6 when he started taking care of his first few head of cattle on the family’s operation in the South Prairie area. He became an active farmer during his senior year of high school in Minot.

“I just need to be out and active and doing things hands on,” he said.

Jill Schramm/MDN Wacey Dahl checks on calves born in his farming and ranching operation south of Minot March 19.

The new crop of farmers and ranchers taking over operations in the Minot area are better educated, more technology savvy and more likely to have held off-farm jobs than the generations of farmers before them.

Active in 4-H and FFA, Kopp had showed cattle and helped out on the farm while growing up. It led to an interest in agriculture but not necessarily production agriculture.

Kopp received an agri-business degree with a minor in accounting from North Dakota State University. She worked for Butler Machinery in farm equipment sales for years and two years for Jerome’s Collision Center in Minot before taking up farming full-time.

She had began assisting her parents, Raymond and Kathy Kopp, on the farm while still working her job in the city. She faced a crossroads with the demands of two jobs and the need for her father to decide whether to keep growing the farming operation or hold steady toward retirement. Her decision to farm led to adding additional rental acres and adding soybeans to a crop base that includes barley, wheat, flax and sunflowers.

Amanda Kopp is a board member for the Ward County Farm Bureau and Ward County Agricultural Improvement Association. She also belongs to other farm groups, including an organization called Common Ground North Dakota, which seeks to help farmers tell their stories and educate the public about their food supply.

Kopp said she enjoys crop production from start to finish but running the combine and seeing the fruit of her labors is always the annual highlight.

Dahl and his brother, Lane, 24, are the fourth generation on their family farm. Their grandparents are Gordon and Darlene Dahl and parents are Grant and Denise Dahl.

Wacey Dahl attended Bismarck State College to study farm and ranch management and welding. Dahl now lives in his great-grandfather’s former house on his grandfather’s place while farming with his father and brother in a jointly managed farm-ranch operation, raising wheat, corn, beans, canola and Simmental-Angus cattle.

“There’s been cows here since my great-grandfather came from Norway,” said Dahl, who hopes to be able to expand the family’s operation and has started that process by investing in his cattle herd.

Dahl said his welding education gives him a fallback if he wants to supplement his farm income as well as coming in handy in building fences and fixing equipment. His brother attended BSC for agronomy and worked for a time as an agronomist. Their father wanted them to get a taste of off-the-farm life so they wouldn’t be choosing the farm just because it was all they knew, Dahl said.

Dahl said college and the temporary, off-farm jobs he’s held gave him a different perspective and enabled him to return to the farm knowing it was the right choice for him. Studying in an agriculture program also exposed him to other young people with similar career goals.

“It might not be necessarily coming back to the farm but it’s something to do with the farm,” he said of the interest in ag careers.

Dahl attends farm improvement talks and training sessions on chemicals or seed treatments to stay current in his industry. He sees more interest in continuing education and technology by young people, which he considers almost a necessity for anyone looking to be in the industry long-term. To make profit margins, new technologies designed to maximum yields and performance are must-haves, he said.

Technology advancements are the future for farm efficiency, Kopp said.

“It’s super exciting,” she said. “There are so many awesome things you can do with the technology they have now. The hard part is the cost of it all.”

Managing costs is one of the biggest challenges for beginning farmers, according to Dahl and Kopp. Finding available land, buying equipment and working with a banker can be trying even when there’s a family member providing support and advice.

“There’s so much you need to know,” Kopp said “Right now, it’s a really scary thing for people to jump into because prices are not so great.”

She’s comfortable with the timing of her entry into farming, though, because she believes the skills she learns during tighter times will pay off when the cycle changes, which she says is bound to happen.

“As long as you are prepared for the bad times, you will be all right,’ she said.

The ups and downs and uncertainties of farming don’t discourage Dahl either because he’s grown up in that environment. He’s seen his grandfather and father weather the vagaries of farming and understands that success means careful financial planning so good times help smooth out lean times.

“It definitely helps to get a grasp on maybe managing your money a little bit, maybe saving more in the good years,” he said. “We are trying to get a little more aggressive on the marketing end. That seems to be your biggest deciding factor on the profit end – how aggressive you want to be looking into the future.”

Dahl and Kopp say they are glad they chose a career in production agriculture.

“Like any job, you have to like it in order to do a good job at it,” said Dahl. And doing a good job is important to him.

“I take a lot of pride in my work,” he said.

U.S. farmers getting older

According to the U.S. Labor Department, the average age of farmers and ranchers is 58. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Census of Agriculture in 2012 shows that during the past 30 years, the average age of U.S. farmers has grown by nearly eight years.

Since 1980, when data on the age of the labor force became available, the average age of the U.S. labor force has increased at about the same rate, although the average age was 41.7.

The latest census showed 2,384 new farmers between the ages of 25 and 34 took up the profession between 2007 and 2012. It represents a 2.2 percent increase, which has been reported as only the second time in the last 100 years that the number of farmers that age has grown.

Women were 14 percent of principal operators but 30 percent of all operators in the latest available census in 2012. The 2017 census is to be released this month.