What steps need/should to be taken to take over the family farm?

When I started farming i purchased everything from my father at full market value. Brother and sister weren't interested in farming. We have struggled with 3 sons and one daughter. but we have a very good close-knit family. My oldest son farms together with my wife and I and the other children have very good off farm jobs. As i have a terminal condition, we've had multiple family discussions (we'r...

Sometimes it’s hard to realize that “Dad” probably didn’t have everything “handed” to him. We are in a similar position. Son/wife’s stepson is back as an employee. Dad and new wife if 20 years have built back after near collapse. Nothing is owed to the next generation except a opportunity. When we do retire there will be some decisions WE need to make. If the next generation wAnts to farm and step...

I would encourage all of you who struggle with family treating you unfair to read the story of ***** and his father-in-law ***** in Genesis 29. My mom’s dad treated my dad very unfairly on the farm and greatly favored his own sons who never put in the work. In the 80s my grandpa lost the family farm to bankruptcy and in late 90s through an act of God my parents were able to buy it back from the...

My two cents worth is this. I have bought and sold properties like this in several situations, usually what I find is the "heirs" are greedy and non-appreciative of the hard work the elderly have achieved and are only looking toward what they will get from it for themselves. All he would like, I believe, is you show more appreciation for what hard work he has performed and you are getting witho...

When I joined the farm I went out rented my own acres started using dad’s equipment in trade for labor. We both wanted the best fir each other. 20 years after that he retired I took on his ground bought out his equipment. I owned probably half of what we owned fir equipment by this time. I’m doin same with my son. Not sure why everyone thinks there parents should give them the farm. Most peo...

My parents set up a trust for us four kids. 1000 acres split up. I would get 400 and the other 3 would have 200 each.

I am working with some financial guys on life insurance policies on my parents to be able to purchase the land after my parents pass.

Sounds like I am supposed to have first right to purchase at 65% value. That would bring us to about 1.7 million.

The payment on the life insu...

As one of many many nieces and nephews of an Aunt and Uncle without children, I was deeded the 500ac farm that has been in the family for 200 years. As it turns out, they gave all money and everything else to all the other nieces and nephews. They did not put a cent into the farm for 30 years. To make the place viable, I figure it will take $3-400k in repairs, equipment, buildings and labor. I ...

You all have great ideas as I went through the same thing in the late 1960's. There was not enough ground for all of us to farm. I like the farm friends I grew up with we moved on and Dad Farmed! 20yrs in the US Army; 20+yrs in the Aerospace Industry but every time a local ground came up for sale and it fit I was there and bought it. In the fall of 2000, at his age of 90, I went home and sold ...

If you feel like you’re doing more work for the farm then you’re being compensated for then you need to leverage your current position. For example if your dad isn’t willing to hang it up but still wants the lions share of the profits you need to go out and lease yourself some side property outside the family farm and use family assets (equipment) to farm it. That dad generation doesn’t want to gi...

You need a third party that not only specializes in transition planning but can also help with the psychological side of it. I farm with my Dad and Brother and we had lots of issues for the first few years until Mom brought a third party in. It helped a lot to get everyone to communicate their goals and concerns. Can't say every day is easy but its been a lot better since. The first year Dad h...

Reading all this makes me feel a lot better... I worked on the farm since I could walk never to be paid a penny just told that one day it’d be mine... at 20 I needed some type of income so I did a small amount of off farm work and then got into custom work after buying a combine. Fast forward to 2010 and I owned 2/3 of the equipment my dad used to farm his 1200 acres and still didn’t get paid but ...

Myself, pawpaw, and dad all farm together. I know the feeling and the pains of arguments with family over what you all love to do. I would tell you this, we argue and get mad at each other but bottom line is you are family and you all love to farm and want what’s best for the farm and the family. I’m willing to bet that your dad is not going to sell out unless it’s his only option. Take it with a ...

Talk with a succession planner. There are many, they can be expensive, but they can help walk your family through this trying time. It will help with understanding what your dad(and mom) wants and also allow you and your spouse as well as your brother(spouse) to express the things you want in the farm.

It can be part therapy and part trust/succession/estate planning but it can definitely help...

Current situation: Not purchasing a farm because father and father in-law have 10+ years left, and grandparents farm that would be ideal is tied up in a sibling standoff with to many emotions to count and "should" be sold this summer/fall. Side note: Can't get a moderator, because the sibling standoff over mom/dad land money they didn't earn, keeps them up at night. Somewhere in the middle you are...

I would encourage you to stop in to your local county Extension Office (being a county agent myself, and farming with my dad working through the same issues) and ask for their help in finding resources, neutral third parties, and ways to communicate through the "generation gap". There's an office in most every county, in every state. They are linked directly to the Land Grant University in your ...

I love **********’s advice on this subject. I just wish all farmers could or would read his book, “Dirt to Soil”. I think it would put things in the right perspective and these difficult situations that so many are living through would not have to happen.

Communication, or the lack thereof seems to be the biggest road block. Maybe going to the father and explaining the concerns and asking for the...

I have been thru every kind of hell there is on this subject so I can pass along what I have learned. First, don't forget your fighting to gain control over your father's life work. Give that the respect it deserves to the best of your ability and it will ease tentions. That said, the older generation needs to understand that their legecy is in their kids, not their dirt and equipment. That farm m...

This doesn’t help people on the outside of these decisions, but two things have been important to us. Tomorrow may be too late to set a transition in place. Three years ago, at F2F, the speaker advised people to wait and see what changes might come about in tax laws...The absolute worst advice ever!

And second, the, best time to disperse your estate is while you are still alive...That being sa...

Some of these situations sounds like a walk in the park compared to mine but I am definitely bias. Regardless, it's a true struggle for each and everyone in this type of situation. I'm 25, my dad is 55 and his mom (Grandma) is 87. She's been in charge since Grandpa passed back in '11 and in my opinion that is when our operation should have made the transition to my father. My father has given his ...

Unfortunately as rewarding or gratifying farming can be, it is an industry that is rife with people who struggle with communication, mental illness, stress, greed, etc. A lot of the time when fathers and sons fight and say things that cut to the bone it's because each party is hurt and they're lashing out.

Other times it's because the parent is scared as hell because they don't want to see what ...

When you talk your son into buying 1/3 of two $60,000 bins and 1/3 of a $35,000 drier then force your son into signing a note for a third bin like the other two under a verbal promise of 1/3 payments between father and two sons. Then renig on the promise of paying other 2/3 between father and second son. At the same time taking the other 2 bins that I payed for and blocking me from using the drie...

If he's your biological dad, do yourself a favor and give him some respect, even if he doesn't deserve it. Someday you'll see you're a copy of him, strengths and weaknesses. Unless he has really serious problems, he certainly wants you to succeed. Ask him for advice and let him know you believe he has something to offer (besides a very nice farm). If you can't see that, you have more than farm wor...

In my situation my father and brother forced me to quit farming with them, forced my brother in law to quit farming with my brother and finally my brother told my father to retire or do the work himself. I found out this week that my father was so verbally abusive the coop kicked him out of the fertilizer plant told him never to return and told him they won’t spray his sweet corn patch. Now my f...

Farmed with my father in the 90's and I can certainly relate to your story. I made the decision to leave the farm as I feared being the 40 year old "hired man" with a strained marriage, still "dealing with dad".. I have since made a career in the seed industry. Every situation is dfferent, and you and your brother farm more than I did at the time. The grass is always greener... I was late 20'...

I am currently 54 years old and until 5 years ago farmed in a partnership with my father. Now my son farms with me. The father and son relationship of disagreements is not a new problem. My father and I had several serious arguments. In my opinion if your father didn't want you to farm with him he would have sold the farm already. Change is hard for older farmers, but they want nothing more then f...

You should know you are in good company. Farmers who have been farming for 20 years or more have a perspective that is drastically different from farmers of the past and the future. Opinions are formed from life experiences, and nobody living today will see land prices go up like they have since the early 90s. Good luck. Grain farming is probably the whitest blue collar job there is. That bei...

Exact same situation here. To the point I had to seek professional counselling services. Finally, I had to get my mind to a place where I could run my own small operation without his control. Telling him to sell if thats what he wanted to do and being ok if that ended my farming. I could go work somewhere to support my family if it came to that. Thankfully, when I didn't have to depend on him, thi...

Look for a consultant and research. There’s lots of guides out there. It’s partially about estate planning and protecting everyone. My parents wanted to see the farm pass to the next generation fairly, and we definitely had our differences in farming style. Dad adopted new methods where there was a clear advantage in land or monetary valve.

We farmed under a corporation and did an estate ...

I’m the only son 3 sisters they have been away since high school. After 30 years of hearing this will all be yours some day I finally got my dad to agree to sell me the acreage where my house is. I decided that wouldn’t be enough to survive and 5 years later I was able to talk them into selling me the home place. The price and interest tripled but I have a small part of the farm I grew up on. 15...

My oldest brother spent 40 years working on the farm and when my dad turned 80 he expected to take everything over. My dad was not yet ready to give up managing the farm and my brother ended up leaving and farming on his own. Now my dad is 87 and cannot get out of his house anymore, yet he is still very involved with the farm via phone. He has helped me greatly to learn to run it but if he was out...

I am in the same situation, the only answer I have come up with is patience and don’t put my kids in the same spot. That generation is stubborn and won’t give it up until they absolutely have to. They’ve never had to share and they’re not going to start now. It’s their identity. They’ve been farming their whole life and not doing it scares them.

My dad in his early 60s told me he just finally go...

At least I am not the only one. I tell him to do it then and I will see him at the auction. I have no good advice for you because we have not moved anywhere forward. From speaking with others it seems beneficial to go on your own and let them stew in the mess they made. Either they come around or you have a jump start on your own future. God forbid they get divorced and add a step mother n step ki...

Find someone who specializes in guiding families through succession planning if you can get your father to go along with it. Then if you can come to a workable agreement make sure everything is written down with legal assistance. You need buyout instructions and solutions to any "what-if" scenarios you can think of. If you and your brother form a partnership or LLC you need the same things for ...