FOR FARMING FAMILIES

Why do farming families put off succession planning?

Read through the barriers that stop families planning farm succession, and you'll probably recognise your family in at least three or four.

That's normal. Naming them is the first step to getting past them.

Not knowing where to start

No information. You don't know the options beyond "sell" or "give it to the kids". There are more than that: a lease, share farming, lease to buy, and others besides.

No pathway. You sense there might be options, but the steps feel overwhelming. A planning process breaks it down into parts you can take one at a time, without rushing.

Not knowing what you want. You don't know what you want for your own life, let alone the farm. So start there: with you, not the farm.

Fear and assumptions

Fear of the conversation. Everyone knows it needs to happen. Nobody will go first, and nobody wants it to feel like an ambush. There are gentler ways in: a letter, a plan the kids write with love, or something that shows how much the place means to you.

Assumptions. Parents assume the kids want the farm. Kids assume the parents have a plan. Everyone's wrong.

The way through is to ask each person separately, then compare. That's when you find out which assumptions were wrong.

Letting go

Identity. For most farmers, farming is who they are. Stepping back feels like losing yourself.

Some arrangements let you keep your involvement and your purpose, while someone else takes on the heavy work.

Control. You've made every decision for forty years. Letting go feels like giving up.

You can stay part of the big decisions while someone else takes on the physical work and the day to day.

The people around you

The adviser gap. Your accountant and lawyer may not understand agricultural succession. You need specialists who do.

Family dynamics. Old resentments, favouritism, childhood patterns. Forty years of history compressed into one conversation.

Sometimes having someone neutral in the room changes everything.

Fair and equal aren't the same thing

Fairness paralysis. The farm can't be split evenly between the kids, so nobody moves.

But fair and equal aren't the same thing. The job is finding what fair looks like for your family.

Greed, real or perceived. Someone is seen as wanting more than their share, whether they do or not. Transparency and a documented process are the antidotes.

Keeping the farm in the family, fairly

Imagine a family farm in central New South Wales. One son works on the farm. A daughter teaches in a regional town. The father is ready, so he calls a family meeting.

They work through the planning section by section. The son wants to farm and build the operation. The daughter wants a fair financial outcome without the daily work. The parents hope to stay on the property.

They choose a share farming arrangement with the son. The daughter receives her share over time, from farm income. The father keeps a say in the big decisions.

Before long, the agreements are signed. The father's words afterwards: "I wish I'd done it ten years ago. The relief is enormous."

The family is an illustration, built from patterns across many farming families. The situation is a common one; the family isn't real.

Nobody in it got an equal slice of land. Each person got what they needed: the son a pathway, the daughter a fair outcome, the parents a way to stay.

You're in the majority

If you recognised your family in any of this, you're in the majority.

Every family has barriers. Name yours and you can start on them.

The full guide, The Cultivate Farms Succession Guide, is free at cultivatefarms.com/resources.

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