Every business owner goes through stages of their career. During an Agri-Safe webinar, Joy Kirkpatrick of the University of Wisconsin-Madison described these as phases of planning, growing, mentoring, letting go, and supporting. If you want to pass your business on to a next generation, your “letting go” phase will overlap with their “growing” phase, she pointed out.

Handling these shifts in role is not always simple. The farm management outreach specialist highlighted a focus group they did to pinpoint some of the biggest barriers to planning for a farm transition. They included a perception that service professionals such as accountants don’t understand agriculture well enough, not knowing the financial capacity of the farm, and simply not knowing where to start. This latter issue makes it easy to put off planning and instead focus on the daily tasks that we know need to get done.

But Kirkpatrick noted that the largest barrier is often tension. There are many kinds of tensions that can crop up when it becomes necessary to think about farm succession:

• Letting go versus retaining control: Our occupations are a big part of our identity, so it is often not easy for an owner generation to let go of farm ownership or decision making because it may be unclear what their identity is outside of those roles.
• Fair versus equal: If there are children on the farm and off the farm, distributing the parents’ assets becomes more complex. “Each family has a very different conversation about that,” Kirkpatrick said.
• Profit versus affordability: Is the farm big enough to do what you want to ask of it? There may be pressure to sell the farmland; balancing the goals of the family and finding the best way to get there is part of the process.
• Relying on conversations versus assumptions: Both generations must be clear on what they want and what the other generation wants. Do not rely on stereotypes or assumptions for this information — ask them.
• Progress versus continuity: This is where management differences often come up. A younger generation may have ideas for improvement, while the older generation has made decisions that allow the business to be in a healthy place to begin with. Both contributions need to be weighed by both generations. Kirkpatrick encouraged farm families to look at the process from the perspective of the farm continuing instead of specific practices continuing.

Conflict comes up when a transition plan deals with differing goals, styles, and values. When faced with conflict, it is easiest for families to simply revert back to “do nothing” mode. However, Kirkpatrick urged farm families to embrace being in the “messy middle.” Don’t panic, but instead acknowledge where you are. You’re going to be uncomfortable, she said, so take time to sit with that. Like in life, the business won’t grow if everyone remains in their comfort zone.

Family businesses are special; it is a strength to work with family, but we also must consider how we can work together and remain a family, Kirkpatrick said. Family decisions are often emotional, subconscious, and inward-looking, while business decisions are fact-based, conscious, and outward-looking. Recognize and understand those differences. “Think about what a family meeting looks like versus a business meeting,” she encouraged.

Kirkpatrick described the three step process she has farm families work through during their transitions: where is the farm now, where do you want it to be, and how do we get there? You will navigate tensions and conflicts along the way. Stay focused on the overall goal, whatever that may be, to keep the challenges in perspective.