FOR RETIRING FARMERS AND THEIR FAMILIES
How other countries keep their farms farmed
By Sam Marwood
When you're ready to stop, what becomes of the farm?
Australia isn't the only country where farming families wrestle with that question. Before looking at the answers here, it helps to see what some other countries have done.
What other countries have tried
In the United States, land trusts like the Vermont Land Trust have been protecting working farms for fifty years. There, the farmer hands the land's future to the trust and keeps farming it, or a new farmer steps in. Either way, the district keeps a working farm.
In the United Kingdom, the National Trust has working farms right across the country. Tenant farmers build real businesses on them, while the land itself is protected.
Across Denmark, the Netherlands and France, cooperative farming goes back generations. Farmers there pool resources and share infrastructure, and new farmers don't need millions to get in.
New Zealand has publicly held farms where new farmers cut their teeth. They build skills and stock, and work their way toward ownership.
What these countries share is a decision not to leave farm succession to chance.
They'd seen what happens when it is: farms get consolidated, the next generation gets locked out and communities hollow out.
The ways to step back here
Here, farming families have six proven ways to step back: share farming, a flexible lease, vendor finance, lease to buy, collaborative farming and an equity partnership.
Each one finishes in its own way.
A lease has a term and a share farming agreement has a finish date, while a vendor finance arrangement concludes when the balance is paid. Even an equity partnership gets to a point where someone wants out.
So when you weigh one up, ask at the start how it finishes, and what you'd want for the farm then.
They're all proven and they all work, and for many families one of them is the right choice.
One more way
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.
The farm stays whole, stays farmed and stays in local hands.
Which way suits you comes down to the farm, the family and the life you want next.
The full guide, Your Farm, Your Legacy, is free at cultivatefarms.com/cultivate-trust.
You can build your own plan at cultivatefarms.com/plan.