Mitch Baltz used to feed hay more than 100 days every year, just like most Arkansas cattle producers.

Today, he feeds hay less than 50 days a year. Some of the bales in his barn have been there for five years.

When Loren McIntyre was 17 years old, his father passed away, leaving young Loren in charge of managing the family dairy farm.

In 2007, the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) found that in the U.S. the average age of a farm’s principal operator was 57.

It is well known that the average age of the farmer has been increasing over the years. Many young people are leaving the farm in search of other occupations.

But there is another interesting, often-overlooked fact the NASS found in 2007.

“It’s a learning process,” Butch Lay said as he sat at his kitchen table, “and I don’t know how steep the learning curve is, but it’s a definite learning process for me personally because you’re learning to do things that they used to do years ago as far as crop rotations.”