The transition from current to future owners doesn’t happen overnight. And an owner can’t simply be the owner one day and the past ownership the next. It’s much too much of a shock to the system for everyone. An orderly transition is the best way to handle the change where the current owner(s) have a plan to let go of things over time, and the successor(s) have a plan to pick up new responsibilities over time. And before you know it, the transition has been as smooth as possible.

Management skills are not hereditary. They need to be learned by the successor(s) which requires the farm owner letting go of some of the reins before they transition management responsibilities completely. And it’s not effective to hand over the labour and even some of the capital decision making without also handing over management responsibility that goes hand in glove with those things.

Each year of the transition should contain shifting balances of production labour, production decision-making, operations planning, capital planning and decision-making, HR selection, direction and management, sales and supplies negotiation, identifying and negotiating of loans and financing and full financial management.

Don’t worry, we’ll walk you through the planning.