Aging farmers and the government want to save farms, but for many the cost is too high

ASHLAND, Mo. — Dan Kuebler is out on a hot August morning on what used to be his farm.

Kuebler grew fruits and vegetables on 30 acres in Ashland, and for decades he sold his produce at the Columbia Farmers Market. 

“Ashland was a little, bitty, sleepy town in ’77 when we bought it,” Kuebler said. 

Then, small towns in southern Boone County started becoming homes to those working in nearby Columbia or Jefferson City. Kuebler watched farmland on his 2-mile dead end road get sold and broken up into parcels. As he neared retirement, he needed to come up with a plan for the future of his farmland. 

“I don’t want it split up into five acre plots … and become a development. That is just like — that’s sacrilege,” he said. 

Kuebler began farming at the age of 40. For the next 33 years, he grew dozens of varieties of vegetables and eventually branc...