When It Comes To Succession Planning, Don't Let Fear Hold You Bac

Passing a farm from one generation to the next can be complicated. But without a plan, families risk losing more than just the business.

Farm succession expert Mike Downey with UnCommon Farms has a personal connection to the issue. Neither of the family farms he grew up around is still operating today. He said fear and difficult family conversations can keep farmers from getting started.

“There's the adage out there that farmers, ranchers have 40 chances, I think there's a book written "40 Chances", but in a lot of cases, I'm sitting across the table from people that have been farming for 50, 60 years; they've had 50 or 60 chances to get better every year at planting a crop or raising their livestock, Downey said. "But I think there's a perception or a fear that when it comes to succession planning, planning for the future, we just have one shot, one chance to get something right that we don't have any practice at. So sometimes getting over that perception of that fear of what if we mess it up? What if we don't do it the right way? If we can get through that, for me, that really opens up, you know, the gamut for the rest of the process to start putting that together.”

Downey said succession plans aren’t permanent documents. They can evolve as a family’s needs and circumstances change. And he said age and seniority do not matter when it comes to who can start the conversation.

“I don't think I've met a farmer or rancher that I've worked with yet that hasn't communicated that they want to see the farm, the business continue," Downey said. "But it's such a difficult thing for them to even talk about. And, so, but yeah, I've seen a young generation who is eager to step in and plan for their own future; maybe they're starting to have a family. I've seen them reach out to help me engage my mom and dad. They just, for a reason, can't sit down and talk about it. I've also seen it the other way around, where mom and dad are, you know, ready to engage and next gen maybe isn't stepping up.”

Farm succession is especially complicated because farms combine a family’s business, land, equipment, livestock and often their identity and legacy. Downey said a third party can be critical in facilitating difficult conversations and keeping family members and outside advisors moving in the same direction. After all, farm succession can be complicated by more than land and assets. For many farmers, the hardest part may be deciding what retirement looks like.

"The other thing I've thought a lot about is, you know, the R-word, retirement, does not exist a lot in farm families' vocabulary," Downey added. "That's another big difference maker between family farm businesses versus in town, where, you know, you don't see too many retirement roasting parties for farmers. But, you know, a lot of cases, this is their culture, their identity, all they know, as they're getting older and able to farm longer because of technologies and less labor, you know, why quit what we, what we enjoy doing, in some cases, all we know to do, don't have other hobbies and so forth. So that's another piece of this, as we see farmers able to farm longer and enjoy it, that can sometimes delay the conversation and the handoff, if you will, to the next generation.”

Farm retirement doesn’t always mean walking away completely. Downey says the goal can be to transition to a different role, giving the next generation management responsibility while allowing the retiring farmer to stay involved in the work they enjoy.

And he said life events often force succession planning to begin, such as a health tragedy or tax change. But he warns that waiting for those major events is a mistake.

“My big message here in 2026 is, you know, action, you know, because if we eliminate other life events that are in cause or motivate folks to do some planning, whether that's tax or health reasons, whatever it is, but, you know, really think about, you know, the future of the business and the alignment, "Downey noted. "And usually that's where generations come together. They all are aligned that they'd like to see this continue. So, what are two or three things that you can do here just in the next 30, 45 days, you know, because if we try to think about it all at one time, I've found that it paralyzes people. So, just find those two or three things. It could be just simply sitting down and having a conversation, but sometimes those crucial conversations are more important than everything else, than having the perfect documents and the structure and the tax planning in place.”

Downey added successful farm succession starts with a vision for the future. Families should define what they want the farm to look like 10 or 15 years from now, then work backward to put the right pieces in place to get there.

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