Just two of the five meant to keep the land in production, but money killed both of those talks. In October 2025, Weeks put La Casa Verde and its 17 tillable acres on MIFarmLink, a statewide program of the Michigan Association of Conservation Districts that introduces landowners to up-and-coming growers. MIFarmLink Director Jill Dohner described the farm-seeking tool the site added in 2024 as “kind of a dating profile for a farmer.”
As of the 2022 Census of Agriculture, 38% of U.S. producers were 65 or older, and only nine percent were under 35. American Farmland Trust estimates close to 300 million acres of farm and ranch land will pass to new owners over the next 15 to 20 years. The Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit works to save farms from development and keep farmers working their land.
How farm link programs match farmers with land
An acre of U.S. farm real estate, buildings included, was worth $4,500 on average in 2026, up 3.4% from 2025, according to the USDA. Developers putting up warehouses and data centers, along with investors who want a steady place to park money, are all competing for the same land, American Farmland Trust says.
The National Young Farmers Coalition, a Hudson, New York-based advocacy group for young farmers, drew more than 10,000 respondents to a 2022 nationwide survey. Of the young farmers in that group, 59% rated it very or extremely hard to find land they could afford to buy. Land access came out as their biggest hurdle, as it did in the group’s 2017 survey.
That’s where farm link programs can help.
Land For Good, a Keene, New Hampshire-based nonprofit that helps New England farmers find land and hand off their farms, has identified more than 50 programs nationwide that offer some kind of farm link service. They connect retiring farmers and other landowners, including people who don’t farm at all, with beginning farmers and others looking for land.
Most farm link programs are listing sites where an owner puts up a farm to sell or rent out, according to Land For Good. A smaller group will also train new farmers, help families plan who takes over, look over a property or help both sides close the deal.
As of early February, Dohner told Bridge Michigan that the MIFarmLink site had 60 farm owners in need of a successor, against more than 600 people hunting for a farm. By then it had paired up 12 farms and farmers, though Dohner could not say how many of those had worked out. A successful match usually takes three or four meetings with different candidates, she said.
