Technology will speed up consolidation in row-crop agriculture as efficiency gains allow fewer farmers to cover a larger number of acres, predicts agricultural economist Kevin Dhuyvetter.

"Crop production is going to start looking a lot more like dairy and swine," Dhuyvetter said last week at the Iowa Farm Bureau Economic Summit in Ames. "We don’t necessarily like to hear that, but it’s going to happen."

Increasing farm sizes also means farmers will...