Discussion on Finding Fairness in Farm Transition Packs Knights of Columbus Hall in Goderich
by Bob Montgomery
The Knight's of Columbus Hall in Goderich was packed yesterday for the one-day discussion on Finding Fairness in Farm Transition.
The event was hosted by the Huron County Economic Development Department and led by Canada’s Farm Whisperer and Coach Elaine Froese. Froese says one of the most common concerns around farm transition is that too often people don't want to talk about. She says the excuses can vary from wait till after Christmas, after seeding, after haying, after harvest, after plowing, after whatever people are doing in their fields and they just keep putting it off. She says her message to farm families is they can do this and if they don't want to do it alone, hire a facilitator or accountability partner, like a coach, but somebody in their family needs to take it on as the driver and the champion. And, if they’re struggling with that, she says all they have to do is go to farmfailycoach.com, sign up for her blog and insights, or go to her YouTube channel and she'll coach you for free.
She says not knowing can make most of us uncomfortable, so what needs to stop is the uncertainty and the confusion around what people's plans are for their life style, their income streams, their housing, how are they going to be fair to all of their heirs, farming and non-farming. She says her question to people she talks to is what does fairness look like to you, what do you need as the founding parent to be successful and what do your heirs need to be successful. And she says for each child and benefactor that's probably going to be something different and that can be the start of a really good exploration of managing people's expectations.
Froese says people need to do some self-reflection about what is keeping them awake at night and they need to know that to make good decisions you need to be mentally well and healthy. She says research shows that twenty-five per cent of farmers have suicide ideation, seventy-five per cent of farmers have some level of low grade or higher grade depression and there's a lot of stress in farming that's not being managed well. And she says one of the huge stresses is not knowing in farm transition.
Froese says her message is everybody can be mentally well and they don't have to do it on their own and when they come to a seminar like the one in Goderich yesterday you realize there's 200 people here who are on the exact same journey, so what can we learn from each other and what tools can we put in place. According to the 2021 Census of Agriculture, Huron County is the most agriculturally productive County in Ontario, with 2,564 farms controlling total capital assets of over $12.2 billion. Yet, based on the results of the 2021 Huron County Business Retention and Expansion Project, only 14% of farm families in Huron County have a written succession plan. That leaves over $10.3 billion dollars of capital unprotected by written multi-generational agreements.
More information on yesterday's session and other transition planning resources can be found on Farm Succession and Transition Planning page of the Huron County website.
