PRINCE FREDERICK, Md. _ In some ways, Jamie Tiralla and her family represent farming's past and future.
Tiralla, 36, grew up in rural Calvert County, Md., but didn't know anything about farming. Her husband's family, meanwhile, has had its hobby farm for nearly a century.
They moved onto the rolling, 115-acre farm 12 years ago, immediately after celebrating their wedding reception in a barn on the property.
"When he said he wanted to move to the farm and start farming, I was wholeheartedly supportive, but I didn't have any idea what it meant," Tiralla said recently.
And if the young couple hadn't had Benson Tiralla's family land, they might have chosen to do something else entirely.
Access to affordable land is a chief barrier across the country for young farmers, especially those who are new to agriculture and lack the resources and institutional knowledge of those who grew up on family farms they may inherit.
Young farmers such as Tiralla are in the minority as America's family farmers have been graying for 40 years.
Since 1978, the share of principal farm operators who are 65 and older has grown, according to the USDA Census of Agriculture. Meanwhile the share of younger farmers has declined.
Just 4 percent of America's family farms have principal operators younger than 35, while nearly a third are led by someone age 65 or older, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 2012 Agricultural Resource Management Survey. The average principal farm operator in 2012 was 58 years old.
Facing high farmland prices and a capital-intensive industry, farmers under the age of 40 are at a unique disadvantage in becoming the next generation of landowners.
One-tenth of America's farmland, or 91.5 million acres, is expected to have changed hands between 2015 and 2019, census of agriculture data shows. In the Northeast, Plains and West, a larger share is expected to be transferred than in other regions.
Meanwhile, the price of farmland increased almost 2 percent in 2018 to a national average of $3,140 an acre, with average prices as high as $8,080 in Iowa, $9,000 in California and $12,700 in New Jersey.
"You're talking about significant capital expenditures before you even plant a seed," said Andrew Bahrenburg, national policy director with the National Young Farmers Coalition. The Hudson, New York-based nonprofit advocates for policy changes and connects young farmers through local chapters.
"Pack on to that difficulty with student loan debt and lack of experience," he said, "and you've got some significant structural barriers to getting young people in."
Many young farmers are new to the agriculture industry. They didn't grow up as "farm kids," raised on family farms and among elders who passed down knowledge collected over generations. In states like Rhode Island, which has the country's most expensive farmland at $13,800 an acre, it's tough for young, landless farmers to compete.
But young farmers are helping themselves through advocacy, entrepreneurship and innovative practices. They pushed for recognition in the federal farm bill, which tends to be geared toward large-scale commodity producers.
Congress passed the bill this week and President Donald Trump was expected to sign it into law. Advocacy groups representing young farmers say they aimed for a bill that increases funding for farmland access and conservation.
The farm bill compromise includes those provisions, increases funding for training, and establishes a beginning farmer and rancher coordinator in each state.
Young farmers also are sharing resources through their organizations and promoting agriculture education, which Tiralla, former vice president of the Calvert County Farm Bureau and former chairwoman of the Maryland Farm Bureau Young Farmers Committee, said will be a primary focus for the group's young farmers committee in 2019.
