Who’s To Take Over the Family Farm?

Family expectations can be a lot to handle, even if there's not a multigenerational business on the line. Now imagine that instead of pressures to pursue a practical career or stay close to home, you’re faced with this decision: continue your family’s legacy of farming, or reject a way of life and set out on your own. 

It’s a familiar dynamic, but for America’s farming families, the stakes are high. Family farms make up 98 percent of all US farms, and generate 88 percent of agricultural production. But a growing percentage of today’s farmers are poised to age out of the profession. If you're in the farming community, you've likely heard the startling statistic: More than one-third of farmers in the US are  over the age of 65 , indicating that a massive transfer in farm ownership is set to take place over the next two decades.

Passing the baton to the younger generation is easier said than done. It requires identifying a successor who's willing to take on the business, managing the succession process, and untangling thorny issues involving families, finances, and feelings. Not the mention the fact that, unlike other businesses, farmers often live where they work, and many plan never to fully retire.

No wonder, as farmer Michelle Sirles told us, it can be taboo to talk about: "You're talking money. You're talking about life expectancy of the older generation—they're dealing with their mortality. And you're also talking about major family dynamics that nobody wants to talk about because it'll probably lead to a big issue for your family holidays."

With that in mind, we  asked the Modern Farmer community  to start the conversation by sharing their own stories of succession on the family farm. From planning for the emotional challenges of succession, to establishing a conservation easement, to the divergent stories of two different dairy daughters, here are their stories.

“We didn't want our farm to transition in crisis.”

Alto Pass, Illinois V.P.,  Rendleman Orchards 

“I have lived on our family farm since my husband and I got married 32 years ago. He has always worked on the farm, and both of his parents have always worked on the farm full-time together.

“We talked about it quite a bit before we approached his parents. We had reached the point in our careers where we knew we wanted to lead, and have (his parents) still available as onsite consultants when needed, because they had poured their life's work into the farm—55 years together. And that knowledge is not easily replaceable.

“We didn't want our farm to transition in crisis. And we didn't want our farm to transition out of necessity, we wanted it to transition because it was planned, because it was best for the business, because it was best for the family and all of our team members. So we put a lot of thought into it, and my final sticking point was that I really wanted to hire a consultant to help us. I didn't think we could do it on our own.

“[The consultants we found] specialize in generational transition of family businesses, and they are organizational psychologists. So they really help you with the emotional side of the transition. Most farms already have their professional team, their banker and lawyer and accountants. They can set up a trust and a structure for your business. But in the succession planning, I really feel that the most difficult part is transitioning from the emotional standpoint, and we definitely found that to be true for all four of us.

“It can be challenging for anyone running a business, who's poured their life's work into it, especially when it's a couple who's done it together and made it a success ... to let go of that is very emotional. It becomes your identity, and in a very small town and farming community, it definitely is your identity, especially if you've been in that area 150 years like we have. And for the younger generation, it's emotional too.

“That's why I found that consultant to be invaluable. They're not biased. Their whole goal, the whole reason they are hired, is to successfully transition your business and see it continue into the next generation.”

“Seeing how much my dad loved farming made me feel like there could be no better way to spend my days. But as they always do in life, things changed.”

Corvallis, Oregon Writer/editor

“Dairy farming, particularly on a small, family-run farm, is hard work. It’s your entire life, and everything revolves around the cows. If your heart isn’t 100 percent in it, it’s going to burn you out.

“My childhood was dairy farming, and I needed the rest of my life to be about me, not just for my own happiness but for my mental and physical well-being. Accepting that was hard for me, especially since none of my three siblings wanted to stay in dairy farming, either.

“The dairy was my dad’s life, he lived and breathed it, and he loved it ... Seeing him work at something he loved so much was incredibly inspiring for me, but that wasn’t enough for me to stay in an industry I didn’t have the same level of passion for.”

“We don’t have children, but we still want to ensure that the farm gets passed down to future generations.”

Loveland, Colorado Fifth generation grain farmer and cofounder,  Root Shoot Malting 

“Planning the future of family farms looks a bit different when you don’t have offspring. Perhaps one of our nephews will take it on, but we don’t know that for sure and we don’t intend to push them in that direction. Although it would be easy to sell our land to developers, we have chosen instead to pursue a conversation easement on our land. A conservation easement—in its simplest terms—is a contract with a land trust that allows for farmland to be protected in perpetuity.

“If family chooses not to take on the farm, my vision would be a trust that allows for people who are interested in agriculture but who may not have access to land to come and continue the work that Olander Farms has done for generations. Land access is a big issue for first-generation farmers, and start-up costs are prohibitive. A conservation easement on an established farm might give new farmers an opportunity that wouldn’t otherwise exist and it would help protect the legacy and the land that our family has held for years.”

“I was never going to farm. Hated cows the majority of my life.”

Southern Vermont Sixth generation dairy farmer,  The Corse Farm Dairy 

“I loved the farm growing up, but I also really resented it, and I did not like cows. And particularly on a dairy, it's 365 days a year. It doesn't matter what's going on, if something at the farm has to be attended to. As a kid, that was hard. I struggled to imagine how that could possibly be a life worth living, where you are so persistently tied to one place, one thing, day after day.

“I went on to work in the arts, and I loved doing all of that work. But as is pretty typical for women, the degree to which I was experiencing mental illness did not become fully clear to me until I was 25. My now-husband, after I had my nervous breakdown, said, ‘We gotta figure out how to get you back to the farm, because it's where you're you. It's where you're happiest.’ And that's how I came back.

“I have always struggled with the responsibility I've felt about being a part of a multigenerational farm family and what that means, but there was never an expectation that it was my job to continue that legacy. And that had a lot to do with how I was able to come back. I think if I had felt like I was supposed to (run the farm), I probably would've run. Just run.

“As time went along and I became a mother, it became clear that we were going to need more help. I am very atypical in that I'm a woman farming without her husband [Abbie's husband works off-farm]. And in dairy particularly, that's pretty rare.

“We were able to become certified as the first mentor grazer in Vermont, and we've graduated two apprentices as part of the only federally accredited apprenticeship program in farming in the country. And our second apprentice we kept on as a journey grazer, because it was so apparent from the first day that he stepped onto the farm that he was a real dairy farmer.

“It is our intention that he will be a partner within the next few years. And then from there, my thinking at this point is that he will take over the farm. And that will be the first time that this farm will be run by somebody other than family in 155 years.

“I'm thrilled and so grateful that we have found somebody who is so clearly invested in this land and these animals in the same way that my family and I have been for so many years. I'm so thankful that we were able to find somebody, because this is not an easy life. It's a beautiful one, but it's not easy.”

At Modern Farmer, we want to continue highlighting stories and perspectives from our reader community. What would you like to hear about from farmers, food producers, and stakeholders in our food system? Let us know your ideas for future topics, or any perspectives you'd like to share with readers, using  this form .

Special thanks to Michelle, Todd, Stefani, Abbie, and the other readers who shared their stories this time around.