Farm transitions

There have been perhaps more farm transitions, passing the operation from one generation to the next, over the last few years, University of Minnesota Extension dairy expert Jim Salfer would perhaps agree with that. Speaker2: Seems like I've been involved in more farm transitions than I have over my career in extension. Speaker1: With reasons ranging from more resources available to producers to make such transitions possible through government and cooperative entities, to a greater emphasis on generational transition of ag operations. Yet, Salfer notes questions from both younger and older generations regarding this process. For instance, how can a beginning farmer without a home farm get into the business? Speaker2: They're going to have to partner up because they just don't have the equity to come in and lock, stock and barrel by somebody out. Speaker1: That partner being an existing farmer that could share knowledge and experience with the younger grower. Nationwide, the average age of a farmer continues to rise. But Salfer believes that may not necessarily be caused by a lack of successors. Speaker2: I also think that people are aging better, so we maybe don't have that older generations that's antsy to get out of the industry. Speaker1: Another factor involving the if's and winds of farm transition. The bottom line? Speaker2: A lot of our farms maybe just aren't really big enough to support two families. And so you've got to work through that and try to determine does that mean one of them either the older young generation works off the farm. Speaker1: And then there is the emotional investment made by the incumbent farmer regarding the operation. Speaker2: There's a lot of concerns and a lot of emotion. And what about non-family heirs? I understand that, but not dealing with it doesn't make it any easier later and for the younger generation, I would encourage you to be patient and understand how hard that is, that maybe your parents built up this business, worked really hard, and now they're going to hand it over to somebody else. That's kind of been their baby for maybe their entire life.