Last April, Kentucky Farm Bureau (KFB) launched a new program to address the steady decline in the number of farms in this state and a decrease in farmed acreage that has taken place over the last several years.

The Kentucky Farmland Transition Initiative (KFTI) is designed to help determine ways to assist farmers transition acreage to new generations of farmers, connect assistance providers during that process, and develop policy that will help keep production agriculture at the forefront of farmland transition.

During the 2024 KFB Annual Meeting, a panel discussion comprised of various experts from attorneys to financial planners discussed the current situation facing agriculture and farm families and possible ways to make farmland transition a reality.

Those panelists included Aleta Botts, KFTI Project Coordinator; attorneys Bobby Foree and Lora Lee Robey; University of Kentucky Extension Professor Dr. Steve Isaacs; and Josh Wilson, Estate Planner, Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Company.

Botts opened the discussion with some alarming statistics saying over the last 20 years, 1.4 million acres of farmland have been lost in Kentucky along with a decline of 17,000 farmers.

“If we continue at that rate, we lose half of our farmers in the next sixty years,” she said. “That has a drastic impact on our farm families, our rural communities and on the state as a whole, to say nothing of the impact on our food system.”

Botts added that one of the most important things in these efforts is to inform people of the resources available to assist in farmland transition.

Issacs said one of the first things to do when a family discusses transition planning is to communicate.

“Talk to each other and find out what the needs and wishes of each other are,” he said. “If (a family) is transitioning between generations, find out if that’s what the next generation really wants. Where it is considered an opportunity or obligation is something that needs to be considered.”

Roby said the first thing she would advise is to identify one’s estate planning and farm succession goals.

“Number two is to start having those hard conversations and communicating with family members who are vital to your operations, “she said. “And third, I would say start organizing your team. You’ll need an attorney, a banker, an accountant, and that’s just your starting point. Estate planning and farm succession doesn’t happen with just one person.”

Foree emphasized that in some instances having conversations about transitioning the farm can be tough.

“Nobody wants to talk about death and the children don’t want to talk to the parents and the parents, often times don’t want to talk to their kids about it,” he said. “And often there are expectations that a grandparent or parent may want a son or someone else to take over and that person may not want to take over, so you have to communicate all of this.”

All the panelists agreed that often when splitting up the farm and assets, fair is not always equal when it comes to dealing with multiple children or family members, especially when one or more family members have been working on the farm.

Wilson said a lot of people tend to stall when it comes to completing the conversations and plans for succession.

“Something that I have seen a lot of is when people say they need to go back home and talk about it because taking over a farm is a big responsibility,” he said. “Sometimes a son may not always want to do what his mom wants to do, or a mom may not want to do what her daughters want to do and that’s when they stall the process.”

Wilson added that farmers are good stewards of their land and part of those efforts includes transitioning it to the next generation.

But the panel noted that there is more to a farm transition than just passing the torch of farming itself.

“There are [multiple] torches, and it is not just the one thing but lots of the management of the farm that needs to be done,” he said. “Too often the older generations are reluctant to give that up and the younger generation is reluctant to grab it. This includes working with the banker or the lender and knowing where the financials are.”

Panelists also answered questions from the audience, questions ranging in subject matters from calculation of accurate land values to communications resources.

Botts concluded the meeting saying the most important take-away from the discussion is that there are many resources available to provide information about farmland transition.

“There are a lot of reasons why we’re losing farmland and one of the big (issues) that we really want to own is what our responsibility is as farmers to really help that land stay in farming,” she said. “That’s what we really want to focus on.”

Following the panel discussion, attendees had an opportunity to talk one-on-one with the panelists about their particular situations and receive additional resources. Questions that were raised during the panel discussion are going to be featured in an ongoing special question and answer feature on the KFTI website. To sign up for updates when these are posted or to learn more about KFTI go to https://www.kyfarmlandtransition.com/.