FOR LOCALS AND LOCAL LEADERS

How do you keep farms in local hands?

You keep farms in local hands by having someone local start looking. Find the farmers who are winding down before their farms are gone, and give a family a way to step back while the farm stays local.

The tools already exist. What's missing is someone paying attention.

Someone has to look

A huge amount of Australian farmland will change hands in the next decade, and most of those changes will happen without a plan. Every district has farmers in their sixties and seventies with no one lined up to take over, who haven't said it out loud. They're not hiding. No one they trust has asked them the right question.

• Start a list. Every farmer you'd guess is winding down. You're building a starting point, not a verdict.
• Talk to the people who already know. Rural agents, accountants, succession planners, stock agents, vets and the bank manager see more of your district's farms than almost anyone. Ask them plainly who might be ready to talk.
• Go and see the ones on your list. Keep the first conversation about them, and ask about their farming history. Tell them plainly you're part of a local group thinking about how the district keeps its farms local as people retire.
• Don't push. Be the person they think of when they're ready, because you asked with care the first time.

Make the connection

You can see the retiring farmers who need a plan and haven't made one. You can see the people who want to farm and can't afford to buy in. The job is the connection between them, and in your district nobody has made it their job to look for it.

When a family has told you they're ready to step back, say this to them:

There is a way to step back from the farm without selling it.

Your farm moves into the Cultivate Trust, which runs it on your behalf, with the right farmer on it.

Hold to your values

Groups that keep their farms local land on values that hold up in real debate. It has to work commercially. Decisions are made locally. The books are open. Share farmers have a pathway to ownership over time. And the commitment runs for a decade. When a hard call comes, the values decide it.

One real farm beats any amount of talk

A real farm with a willing retiring family is worth more to the whole idea than any amount of enthusiasm without one. Once you have that, bring it back to your group, and the rest of your community has something to rally behind.

The full guide, Community Owned Farms, is free at cultivatefarms.com/resources.

You can build your own plan at cultivatefarms.com/plan.