THE PEOPLE WHO PUT THEIR HAND UP

The couple who rang out of the blue

The phone went after the shed was washed that morning on the farm, and a retiring couple from the district were ringing the two farm workers out of the blue.

They wanted to retire without selling the farm, and nobody sent them, because the call was their own and the talk in the district brought them to it that day.

For the two of them, farm succession meant their own farm still going, and the daily milking no longer being the whole of the day they were living.

The two farm workers went as themselves, the people who took the step in that district, and they took no folder with them at all when they sat down.

They sat down with the retiring couple at the kitchen table in their house, on the day of the decision, the dairy quiet and the morning's milking already done.

Before that day, the retiring couple had their own accountant over, and they rang their son, and they asked their hard questions. The questions were what happens to the house, who chooses the farmer, and what their children hold. This was the day they decided, and it came after all of that.

The shed in the window was the one the retiring couple had milked in through their working life, and they wanted that shed still working after that morning.

They wanted the shed still milking when they were no longer the ones putting the cups on, and they said so before the talk at the table moved on.

One of the retiring couple poured the tea at their own kitchen table, and the other said they wanted the farm kept whole, the paddocks and the shed as one.

The retiring couple had said what they wanted for their own place, and they were ready to hear a way that kept the farm from being sold.

The table held the ordinary things of a farm kitchen on a morning like this, and the talk stayed on their shed and on the place staying whole.

One of the farm workers spoke straight to the retiring couple in their own kitchen, and then he stopped so they could take in what was just said.

"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."

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

"You keep a say in how it's farmed."

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

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

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

The retiring couple decided before anyone left the table, and the two farm workers headed off once that decision was made.

This is an illustration of how it could unfold when it goes right. The district and the people in it aren't any one place or person.

Your Farm, Your Legacy is free at cultivatefarms.com/resources.