2009-10 Marketing Caravan
Contest Details: A Day of Mentorship – Farm Succession Planning
Even with all the efforts to create awareness within the farm sector that succession planning is important and that farms should have formalized and well-documented plans in place, there remains a relatively small percentage of farmers who have a plan in place or who are actively working on a plan. It is difficult to exactly know why this reality exists. However, one of the possibilities is that farmers think that succession planning is something that happens at a particular point of time. Something happens that causes a farmer to think that it’s time that they had a succession plan in place. In fact, succession planning should start as early as at age 30 or 35; that succession planning is not a one-time activity triggered by some event in the family or business.
A day spent talking about farm succession planning can cover a broad area of topics. For purposes of this Day of Mentorship, participants can select from one of three options:
- development of the day’s agenda to meet the specific interests and/or needs of the farm family; the development of the agenda being discussed and determined by the family and Terry Betker.
- an open, free flowing and non-restrictive discussion about farm management and succession planning, facilitated by Terry Betker and with either a single generation present or with multiple generations present.
- a facilitated discussion about farm succession planning with the agenda set by Terry Betker, including (with some hands-on exercises / participation by the farm family)
- correlations between farm management and succession planning
- ownership, management and labour
- readiness
- goals and values
- financial performance
- management
- personalities
- plan development
- strategic direction
- critical issues and action plans
- communication
- governance
- compensation
- accounting and legal
- plan implementation
- meetings and discipline
Funded in part by the
