WINNIPEG – Farmers of the future increasingly could choose farming as a
second career, returning with equity and management experience after
working in other sectors first.
Larry Martin of the George Morris Centre, who spoke at a conference on
farm succession in Winnipeg earlier this month, said many over age 35
are coming back to the family farm with management skills.
The chief executive officer of the agricultural think-tank based in
Guelph, Ont., cited examples of well-run operations, where the senior
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members insist their children go away to work before getting back into
the business.
Martin said it allows the younger generation to work hard and build
experience in the larger world and equity in the farm.
“Sending the kid off to make sure he can be successful in somebody
else’s company is a really good test,” Martin said.
Commenting on other trends, he cited large amounts of farmland in the
hands of non-operators. They include many widows who do not wish to run
the farm or have no interested heirs.
That means much farmland will be transferred by methods other than
inter-generational transfers.
Martin said that might present opportunities for farmers who do not
wish to tie up a large amount of capital in land.
He questioned why producers need to own all the land they farm and
suggested alternate arrangements to finance, rent or get access to land.
Little has changed in attitudes toward farm succession planning over
the years, Martin said. Getting people to talk about it remains as
difficult for this generation as it was for the last.
“Succession planning is a little like high school sex in the Sixties;
everybody talks about it but nobody does it,” he said.
The average age of Canadian farmers is 54, so much farmland will start
to turn over or be sold in the coming decade. As farm populations
decline, Martin said there are fewer farmers under age 35 entering
agriculture.
Total farm capital in Canada in 1996 was $172 billion from 276,000
farms. The amount of farm equity has grown substantially in the last
few decades, more in livestock and quota values than in land. The
amount of equity in the farm among older farmers remains high.
