Succession planning for a family farm is not always easy. There are often many relatives who are interested, as well as many that don’t want anything to do with the farm. For this reason, everyone needs to be involved in the discussion, whether they want in or not. Then, once a plan has been made, it is time to start working toward the future.
Here are some tips to plan for the future of the family farm.
Train, train, and train some more. It is important that everyone learns what they need to so that the farm continues to be successful for years to come. This starts with proper training. It may take years of training to be able to take over the family farm so interested parties should learn everything that they can from the head of the farm (for as long as they can). The more time that they have to learn, the better off the farm will be.
Proper delegation of tasks. There are a lot of tasks that go into running a successful farm. If many people are interested in keeping the family farm going, make sure that they all have delegated tasks. Some may prefer to work with the livestock, while others prefer to plant certain crops. One family member may decide to handle the paperwork and accounting. Successful delegation really helps a family farm continue to grow and prosper.
If there are other employees, actions should be taken to keep as many of them as possible during the time when the farm gets passed on. A farm is nothing without the hard work of the employees, especially those who are trained well. For this reason, they should be reassured that they will have jobs for years to come, even through the transition. Then, you should do everything that you can to ensure that they are happy and want to stick around.
It can be hard to work through a transition. However, by starting early, the new generation can be properly trained for years so that they will be fully prepared to take over the care of the farm.
Contact us for more tips on running the family farm.
