By Alaina Friesleben and Kristine Tidgren
It’s upsetting to acknowledge that dad or grandpa just had his second heart scare. He has a pacemaker now. Mom or grandma, too, can’t complete livestock chores like she once could.
As older generations age, so do younger ones, and some aren’t sure if they want to return to the century-old family farm as generations before them have. Maybe some are prepared to pursue ownership — but need help getting started.
Legacy. Conflict. Discomfort. Stress. Procrastination.
These are just a few of the reasons fewer than 44% of Iowa farmers with under 1,000 acres have a written estate and succession plan.
An Iowa woman puts it plainly when reflecting on her family farm’s impending transition: “We just don’t want to bring it up.”
The issue
Whether planned or not, a major transfer of agricultural assets is approaching within the next one to two decades.
Today, two-thirds of Iowa farmland is owned by individuals aged 65 and older. Landowners aged 75 and older now own a record 37% of all acres.
According to Kristine Tidgren, director of the Center for Agricultural Law and Taxation and Dolezal adjunct associate professor of agricultural education at Iowa State University, these demographics make farm transition planning increasingly urgent.
“I've learned that (retirement) is not always a goal for a lot of farmers, but nonetheless, for a lot of them, their health will cause them to have to slow down and not be able to do all the same things on the farm that they've been able to do in the past,” she said.
“Like it or not, things are going to have to transfer when we're looking at that demographic.”
For many families, the question is both practical and deeply personal: How can this farm continue?
Source : iastate.edu