FOR RETIRING FARMERS AND THEIR FAMILIES
What happens to the farm when there's no one to take it on?
By Sam Marwood
Nobody in the family is going to take the farm on. When that's how it stands, the question changes.
It's no longer who gets the farm. It's what becomes of it.
Start with what you want the place to be
Before you weigh up any path, get clear on what you'd want the place to become once you've stopped working it.
Then each choice has something to be measured against.
Four ways forward
Sell on the open market. There's no pathway for a farming family, and a lifetime's work gets reduced to a settlement date.
Leave it to family. If nobody in the family wants to work it, this one is already closed.
Give it to a charity. You give it away, and you step out of the decision.
Keep it working. 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.
What the fourth way means
The farm stays whole, stays farmed and stays in local hands.
The right farmer goes on it: the best farmer for the farm, not the highest bidder.
You keep a say in how it's farmed.
It's built to flex around your life, not to lock you in.
Can you retire without selling the farm?
If no one in your family will farm the place, you have more choices than a sale.
Weigh each one against what you want the place to become, and talk it over with the people closest to you.
The full guide, Your Farm, Your Legacy, is free at cultivatefarms.com/cultivate-trust.
You can build your own plan at cultivatefarms.com/plan.