STORIES WE LOVE
No one to take the farm on, so he gave it to his district
By Sam Marwood
Story from ABC News, 20 June 2021
Every now and then I find a story that shows exactly what we're about at Cultivate Farms: real people finding a way to keep a farm working and bring someone new onto it. I share them here because seeing it done by others makes it real. Here's one I love.
From ABC News, 20 June 2021: "Grain grower gives farm to community as an act of philanthropy, hoping to inspire others", by Tara De Landgrafft. Read the full story at abc.net.au.
Why I love it
A grain grower east of Esperance broke away from the family operation at thirty and farmed on his own for twenty eight years. Then he got a cancer diagnosis, and it made him think hard about what the place was actually for. He had nobody in the family to take it on.
So he worked out what his district was short of: health, schooling, the arts for young people and the public places everyone uses. He sold one property and put the proceeds into a trust, which grew into a foundation handing out grants across rural Western Australia. Then he gave the working farm to it as well. He wrote down what he intended, so his wishes still hold after he's gone, and the farm has its own board.
Why it matters for towns like ours
Every district has a farm with nobody coming. The usual ending is that it sells and gets swallowed, and a family's lifetime of work disappears into somebody else's title. He found another ending. The paddocks still grow crops, the farm carries research and trial work with grower groups and research bodies, and what it makes above costs goes back out into the district every year. Others near him have since started a local fund of their own.
One step you could take
If there's nobody to take your farm on, write down what you want the place to be for and what your district is short of. Then ask your adviser what structure would hold that after you. Read what happens when there's no one to take the farm on in our Your Farm, Your Legacy guide.
I share these stories because each one shows it can be done, by ordinary farming families, in places like yours. If you know a story like this, or you're living one, I'd love to hear it.