Successful Farming: Producers got older, more females were principal growers, and farms got bigger while the average per-farm income declined between 2012 and 2017, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2017 Census of Agriculture. The average farmer was 58.6 years old in 2017, and while that’s up slightly from 58.3 years old in 2012, it shows the increase in age slowed. Between 2007 and 2012, the average age of a grower increased by 1.2 years and between 2002 and 2007, it increased by 1.8 years. The 0.3-year uptick in the five years through 2017 was the smallest gain since the period that ended in 1982.