UI To Hold Succession Planning Meetings

With a new year, many in farm country are going over the books, looking for places to save, what equipment needs to be purchased, and what needs to happen to make the year ahead the best possible. Joel Packham is encouraging farmers to include Farm and Ranch Succession Planning to that list. In an effort to remove the stigma, and concerns, connected with Succession Planning, the University of Idaho Extension educator is holding a series of meetings to cover what it takes to have an effective plan. He noted the hardest step is the first, acknowledging you need a plan for the future of the farm.

“A shirttail agreement is not going to work in this kind of way, in this kind of situation. And the person next door will have a totally different idea and circumstance that are going to cause their plan to be so much different. And yet you say that they are also extremely a lot the same.”

Packham added succession planning only works if the entire family is willing to sit down and have an honest, heart-to-heart conversation.

“If mom and dad can face the fact that they're not going to be here forever, then it's a wonderful time for the family to make some plans as to how they perceive this farm to go forward. You know the family, if there's a legacy to this farm, which a lot of farms have a real legacy that they have worked very hard to get this land and they want it in the family, I don't know of any way to do it but to sit down and really make a plan that is very effective and this is the perfect time to do that.”

Classes will be both on-line and in person, and will cover a variety of topics, including: