Category: Succession

farmer sitting on a hay ball

What Are Your Lifestyle Goals?

When you decided to take on the farm, you knew it was a lifestyle choice. Early mornings, and long days outside. Demanding physical work, hats and dusty boots. The sun, the rain, the freedom to be your own person. Independence, ingenuity and isolation – no rat race for you or your family. You live by […]

wheat field with farmer

What’s The Plan If You Can No Longer Work?

When you are young life seems to stretch out in front of you – and it seems like you have an almost infinite amount of time at your disposal. You are strong and healthy and not much threatens that feeling of invincibility. Plenty of time to achieve any ambitions, and in any case, you can’t […]

farmers on field with farming equipment

Six Key Elements Of A Farm Succession Plan

Getting any succession plan right is important, but farming succession plans have complexities not seen elsewhere because of the many and varied vested interests of family members. Financial and emotional ties that bind a family together but equally can break both the family and the business if not recognized and treated properly in the family […]

two famers stand in a crop field

How To Run A Family Meeting About The Hard Stuff

One of the key components in the process to formulate your family farm succession plan is the family meeting. You need this because everyone involved should be on board with the plan otherwise all you have is a piece of paper. But get this wrong and you may not even get as far as the […]

farmer overseeing his farmland

Why You Can’t Be Fair No Matter How Hard You Try

You will no doubt be familiar with the plaintive cry of a child – it’s not fair! Politicians like to talk about “a fair go” and you have probably spent your life trying to deal fairly with people. It may well be the most universally accepted ideal we have in society, but achieving fairness can […]

two farmers and their crops in bright sunlight

Why Your Kids Will Never Run The Farm As Well As You Do

Succession in a family business of any sort is fraught with difficulty, and generational change does not always mean a successful continuation of the business. That’s a well known fact. And when it comes to farming businesses, there are special circumstances that come into play because the business is so personal. After all, your business […]

parent with his two kids

Six Questions To Ask Your Family Tonight

Ok, so you don’t have to ask all of these questions tonight, but do ask them sometime in the near future. This can be informal, and make it clear that you won’t necessarily have an immediate response, but that you will take their answers seriously. Try not to debate the answers you receive, although further […]