ROWLEY, Iowa (DTN) -- Minutes after USDA issues the latest crop report, eight partners in Carson and Barron Farms huddle in their windowless Iowa conference room to talk marketing strategy.

This is no run-of-the-mill marketing club. These allies -- age 62 to 23 -- make independent sales decisions and farm individual holdings scattered across the county. One farms just 130 acres, but as a team, they pool equipment, labor and expertise to operate with the clout of a single 5,000-acre corn and soybean grower.

Farms in the $1 million-plus farm size are the fastest growing segment of U.S. agriculture. Between ...