FOR RETIRING FARMERS AND THEIR FAMILIES
When one child carries the farm for the rest
By Sam Marwood
When the farm is most of what a family owns, being fair to every child gets very hard.
Keeping the farm in the family is a good hope. So is treating the kids fairly. On a traditional handover, the two pull against each other.
How the traditional handover plays out
On a traditional family handover, all the financial risk sits on one child. The siblings need to be bought out, and that creates debt or resentment, or both.
The parent feels guilty about favouring one child. The child who gets the farm carries everyone's inheritance on their shoulders. The children who don't get it feel short changed.
And if the operation buckles under the buyout debt, you've lost the property and damaged the family.
Bring the family in early
Whichever way you go, bring the family in early, so everyone understands the options and has a voice before anything is decided.
Another way to step back
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. Nobody has to carve up the land: the farm isn't being divided, the value is.
The right farmer goes on it: the best farmer for the farm, not the highest bidder.
The full guide, Your Farm, Your Legacy, is free at cultivatefarms.com/cultivate-trust.
You can build your own plan at cultivatefarms.com/plan.