FOR RETIRING FARMERS AND THEIR FAMILIES

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

Maybe the kids don't want the farm. Maybe one of them does, and you're not sure how to make the handover work. Maybe you're lying awake at night, wondering what happens to this place when you can't do it any more.

Why it matters that the farm stays a farm

When a farming family sells up and leaves, the impact ripples through the whole community. One less household at the school. One less voice on the community committee.

When a farmer stays connected while an incoming farmer takes over, something different happens. The community keeps a family. The farm stays productive. And you get to watch your life's work continue.

The knowledge gets passed on, too.

Which paddocks hold water in a dry year. Where the soil changes from clay to loam. Which fences need doing first. How to read the weather in your valley.

That knowledge lives in your head, and passing it on gives both of you something meaningful.

When the usual options end

Leases, share farming and the other usual options have all worked well for Australian farming families. Each one has its place.

With a lease, you still own the land and another farmer works it. But it doesn't solve the succession question. It delays it. When the lease ends, you're back where you started.

Share farming goes a step further, with you and the farmer sharing the risk. But the agreement runs for a set term, and when it finishes, the question of the farm's future comes back.

With lease to buy, the farmer may take up the option and buy the farm, and the timeline can be long, so your succession decision is still years away from being finalised. Partnerships can end too: if the relationship between partners breaks down, the business structure needs to be unravelled, and an exit can be disruptive if it wasn't planned for.

What the Cultivate Trust is

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

It's the seventh of the seven options set out in Ageing on Farm.

What it means for the farm

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.

What it means for your family

Your family keeps a stake, with choices: hold it, pass it on, or sell some over time.

Before the Trust could ever sell the farm, it comes to your family first, for as long as you hold a stake.

What it means for you

You keep a say in how it's farmed.

Often you can stay in the house, and that is settled in writing as part of the design.

It's built to flex around your life, not to lock you in.

Where to start

Start by getting clear on your hopes for the place, and talk it through with your family.

Have you talked to them about what happens to the farm? If your children have different wishes, how will you manage that? Are there family tensions that will affect the decision?

What legacy do you want to leave: the farm itself, the value it represents, or something else entirely? And what is the one thing you need to do next, and who do you need to talk to?

Like every option, the Trust has things to weigh up, and it's a decision to take your time over. Your Farm, Your Legacy is the complete guide to the Cultivate Trust, and it sets them out plainly. It's free at cultivatefarms.com/cultivate-trust.

The full guide, Ageing on Farm, is free at cultivatefarms.com/resources.

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