Factors Influencing Farmers’ Expectations to Sell Agricultural Land for Non-Agricultural Uses* Brett Zollinger Department of Sociology and Docking Institute of Public Affairs Fort Hays State University Richard S. Krannich Department of Sociology, Social Work, and Anthropology Utah State University Abstract In this study we identify factors that influence farmers’ ex- pectations to sell some or all of their farming operation in areas where the increase in the conversion of agricultural land has been relatively rapid. Findings indicate that the following factors increase farmers’ propensity to sell some or all of the agricultural operation for non-agri- cultural land use: perceived negative change (particularly difficulty in ob- taining and retaining rental land and in purchasing land) increases the likelihood that farmers will expect the operation to become nonviable, which in turn increases the expectation to sell some or all agricultural land; lack of a child who will take over the operation; and declining prof- its from the operation. Factors that apparently exert little influence on the expectation to sell some or all of the farming operation include level of intrinsic rewards that a farmer experiences from his farming opera- tion, the farmer’s satisfaction with his community, and the farmer’s close- ness to retirement age. Utah’s rapid population growth in the 1990s was accompanied by increased conversion of agricultural land to urban uses. Though broad economic and demographic changes are a key factor in this trend, the decisions of individual agricultural operators account for the aggregate loss of agricultural land in areas affected by such growth. Thus it is important to understand the factors that influ- ence operators’ decisions to sell their land to buyers who intend to use it for non-agricultural purposes. Little attention has been di- rected to studies of farm operators’ expectations and motivations regarding farmland conversion. Rural Sociology 67(3), 2002, pp. 442–463 Copyright © 2002 by the Rural Sociological Society * The research for this project was funded by a Rural Sociological Society Dis- sertation Award and by the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station, Project UTA 00844. The first author thanks members of his PhD committee—Ronald L. Little, Pamela J. Riley, Herb Fullerton, Gary Madsen, and Bruce Godfrey—for their com- ments on his dissertation, from which this paper originates. Direct correspondence to Brett Zollinger, Department of Sociology, Fort Hays State University, Hays, KS 67601.