New Site Helps Farmers Plan for Retirement

Three Purdue researchers say their site ( http://www.ces.purdue.edu/farmretirement ) focuses on the step-by-step ways farmers typically move into retirement, the Associates Press reported.

According to the Purdue researchers, farmers usually sell livestock first, then scale back crop production before selling or renting equipment and land.

They can use the new Web site to estimate their family’s annual retirement income from rented cropland, the sale of farm machinery, and other farm-related revenue.

They can also take into account the various costs of running a farm, the concerns of siblings vying to take over the enterprise, and the growing number of farms where the farmer or spouse work off the farm to supplement their income.

Because many farmers are accustomed to using the Internet to monitor weather conditions and commodity markets, researchers say their new Web site will appeal to the farmers do-it-yourself nature.

A 1997 survey by the US Department of Agriculture found that about 48% of the nation’s 1.9 million farmers were 55 or older, and about 6% of American farmers were age 70 or older.