Insights Into 'Millennium Farmers'

Speaking at the recent Minnesota Crop Production Retailers' annual convention and trade show, Jan Johnson of Millennium Research unveiled the company’s new in-depth look into America’s up-and-coming generation of agricultural production professionals, or as she calls them, “Young Farmers.”

“Today’s young farmers are extremely well-educated,” she notes, “They are more technology and business minded than their older farming partners. They want to know the ROI on every investment they make.”

Retailers in attendance learned Millennium’s recommendations for succeeding with this new generation of decision makers on the farm. The study shows that technology adoption is high on their list of priorities, with 91% having self-driving tractors and combines, and 94% accessing the internet via their smart phone.

The Young Farmer presentation is an in-depth look at a continuing study Millennium Research started one year ago, and included previously unreleased findings from the company’s other publicly available work for National Association of Farm Broadcasters and the Farmer Speaks panel. It combines primary and secondary research with social media mining and ethnography, as well as Millennium’s proprietary Empathic Method of gaining superior market insight.

“She hit the nail on the head,” says Zack Johnson and Adam Hislop, two millennial-generation farmers from Minnesota who appeared in a panel directly after the presentation. “I’d say this pretty well covers everything.”