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Not so long ago, most people in America were farmers, but now only about one in a hundred work the land.

Yet farmers and ranchers today are as important as ever - they're the stewards of almost half the land in North America.

Most of the country's agriculture is still run by families - families like the Hagers, who own a 700 acre dairy farm in Massachusetts.

Chip and Sherry Hager run the farm, along with their daughter Kim and son-in-law Aaron, and another son, Todd.

Both Kim and Aaron are college graduates with degrees in agriculture.

For Outlook, John Biewen of the Centre for Documentary Studies at Duke University followed the family through the different farming cycles of the year.

Five Farms

John also met four other farming families in the USA as part of click Outlook's Five Farms series.