FOR RETIRING FARMERS AND THEIR FAMILIES

No one to hand the farm to? How one grazier could give it to his district

Picture a grazier in inland New South Wales who has farmed the same country most of his life. He knows which paddock floods first and which gully holds the frost, and he has no children who want to farm it. They're grown and settled somewhere else and happy, and he's proud of them for it.

The neighbours have been offering for years, and any one of them would farm the place well. But he knows what happens next. It gets folded into a bigger place, the wealth it built leaves the district, and one more farm that could have given someone a start never will.

The thing he actually wants

He doesn't want to sell to the highest bidder, or give it away in one signature and hope. What he wants is a farming family on his country, the farm kept whole, and something going back to the district that gave him a life. And he wants to see it working before he lets go.

Step one: a sharefarmer beside him

So he doesn't start with a solicitor. He starts with a sharefarmer, and Cultivate Farms sit down with him first to agree what a good farmer for his place looks like: the country, the stock, the way he runs it, and the things he won't budge on.

Then they find one, an aspiring farmer who has managed stock on other people's places for ten years and never had the chance at country of their own. He meets them, walks the paddocks with them, and has the final say.

The two of them sign a share farming agreement, so he keeps the title while the farmer brings the work, some of the stock and a lot of energy. They split the costs and the income in the shares they agreed.

Cultivate Farms write the farm plan with him, check the farm against it and report to him every year. If the farmer falls short, they deal with it, so he doesn't have to have the hard conversation.

The seasons that follow

The first year is a dry one, which is useful, because it's the year he learns the farmer doesn't panic. By the third year he's in the yards only when he wants to be, and he's watching someone else fall in love with his country, which suits him better than he expected.

Meanwhile his accountant and solicitor work through the giving: which of his entities owns what and whether each can give, what duty and capital gains would apply on each step, and what it means for his pension and his bank. There's no deadline, so they get it right.

Step two: when he's sure

There is a way to step back from the farm without selling it. When he's sure, his farm would move into the Cultivate Trust, which runs it on his behalf, with the right farmer on it. His gift would go to a charity that puts its income back into the district.

The farmer would keep farming to the plan he wrote, carrying what he cares about, and could build a stake in the farming business.

The plan keeps the house block out of the gift, so he can still have a cup of tea on the verandah most afternoons.

Could this be you?

If you have land and no one to hand it to, you don't have to choose between selling it and giving it away blind. Start with a sharefarm, see it working, and then decide.

The full guide, The Farm That Keeps Giving, is free at cultivatefarms.com/resources.

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

This story is an illustration. It's drawn from situations we see often, and it isn't any one farmer or family. It's general information, not legal or tax advice.