Agri-Generational

We have heard this from more next-generation farmers and ranchers than we can count:

"I didn't want to seem like I was just waiting for them to hand it over."

So they stayed quiet. And the senior generation interpreted that silence as disinterest. And the plan never got made.

If you want to be part of the future of your family's operation — say it. Not with demands. Just say it like a person who loves the land and wants to carry it forward.

That single conversation changes everything. It tells the people who built it that their work was worth it. That someone is ready to take it seriously.

You do not have to have all the answers. You just have to be willing to start.

Take our free Farm and Legacy Assessment at agrigenerational.com and find out where your family stands — and what comes next.

Here is a number that should stop every farm and ranch family in their tracks:

Only 30 percent of family farms successfully transfer to the second generation. Only 12 percent make it to the third.

That is not because the next generation did not want it. It is not because the land was not worth keeping. It is almost always because there was no plan — or the plan lived only in one person's head and never made it to a conversation, let alone a document.

You did not build this operation to watch it get divided up, sold off, or fought over. You built it to last.

That takes more than hard work. It takes an honest conversation and a real plan.

If you are ready to protect what you have built, start at agrigenerational.com — take our free Farm and Legacy Assessment and find out exactly where your operation stands.

May is almost over.

Planting season is moving. The operation is running. And somewhere in the back of your mind, that conversation you have been meaning to have is still sitting there, patient as a fence post.

This month we talked about the senior generation waiting to be asked. About the next generation waiting for an invitation. About the women whose voices belong at the table. About the humor in how long these things get put off.

Here is the simple truth at the end of all of it: the families who protect what they have built are not the ones who wait for the perfect moment. They are the ones who decide the moment is now.

If you are ready to take the first step, we are here.

Visit agrigenerational.com and let's start the conversation.

“You can learn from your mistakes. You can learn from someone else’s mistakes. Or, you can learn from someone else’s success.”

Brent recently joined Jessie Jarvis on Leaders Of The West for a conversation about succession planning, family operations, letting go, and preparing the next generation with clarity instead of guesswork.

This episode is a good listen for any farm or ranch family that knows the future matters, but may not be sure how to start talking about it.

Listen while you’re in the pickup, checking water, feeding, or heading down the road.

Listen here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/157-legacy-land-and-letting-go-with-brent-turner/id1691893350?i=1000769614844

To every woman running a farm or ranch operation — or holding one together behind the scenes:

We see you.

The early mornings. The books you keep. The relationships you manage. The decisions you make that nobody writes down because they just assume you will handle it.

Women own or co-own nearly half of all U.S. farmland. And yet women are still too often left out of succession conversations — inheriting not just the land, but the confusion that comes with no plan.

Your voice belongs in every conversation about the future of your operation. Not eventually. Now.

Tag a woman in agriculture who deserves to be recognized.

This weekend, while the country pauses to remember the people who gave everything for this land, we want to say something simple:

Your operation matters. What you have built matters. And protecting it — not just from market swings or bad weather, but from the confusion and conflict that comes when families do not have a plan — is one of the most important things you can do.

A lot of family farms and ranches do not survive the second generation. Not because the next generation did not want it. Because nobody sat down and figured out how to hand it forward.

You can change that. It does not have to be complicated to start. It just has to start.

We are grateful for the families who keep feeding and serving this country.

As Memorial Day approaches, we have been thinking about the people who made the land we farm and ranch on possible.

Some of them wore a uniform. Some of them held a plow. Some of them did both.

They did not build it for it to stop with them. They built it to be passed on. To become something beyond themselves.

That is exactly what you are doing every time you work toward a succession plan — even when it is hard, even when the family dynamics are complicated, even when the right words do not come easy.

You are honoring what was given to you by deciding what to give forward.

This week, we are thinking about the ones who came before. Who comes to your mind?

True story we have heard from more families than we can count:

The succession meeting has been scheduled, moved, almost happened, nearly come up at Christmas dinner, been the subject of three separate "we really need to talk soon" phone calls, and survived two retirements that were not really retirements.

It is not that nobody cares. It is that everyone cares so much they do not want to be the one to say the wrong thing.

We understand that.

But here is the thing — the wrong thing said at a kitchen table is recoverable. A plan that never happened is not.

What finally got your family to have the conversation? Or is it still coming soon? Tell us in the comments — you are probably not alone.

If you are in your 30s or 40s and working on a family farm or ranch — or hoping to — this one is for you.

You are in what we call the in-between years. Old enough to understand what the operation requires. Young enough that the senior generation still thinks of you as the kids.

It is a real place to be. And it can go on longer than it should.

The families who get succession right do not wait until the oldest generation is ready to step back. They start the conversation when the next generation is ready to step up.

Those are not always the same moment. The gap between them is where things get complicated.

If this sounds like your situation — you are not alone. What does your situation look like right now?

May is here.

Fields are going in. Calves are on the ground. The operation picks up its pace and everything else gets pushed to the back burner.

We get it. This is the season that demands full attention.

But here is the thing — the families who plan well did not wait for a slow season. There is not one. They found a moment inside the busy and started there.

What is one thing you are hoping to get done this spring that has nothing to do with crops or cattle?