Land Sale or Living Legacy?

What is your legacy?

Who is the caretaker of your love for Your collection?

Where will YOUR farm go when the Good Lord calls you home? 

Will it be divided among relations that are not daily active?

Passed to the younger generation that seem to always be there to help?

The hired hand who became like family?  

Will you force the siblings to buy each other out so the one who always farmed beside grandpa or yourself has no hope of affording the land that has been in the family for generations? 

Will you talk with your neighbor how it’s a shame that the younger generation has no interest in farming anymore- while attending an auction on a farm that proudly shows a centennial sign? 

Will you pay top dollar for the land at that auction and give the devastated young couple standing beside you a chance? 

When you decide to sell or rent out some of your own ground- will you seek out the big corporation or will you ask around for a young one trying to farm? 

Perhaps the high school kid who grew up helping on the farm every summer really doesn’t like that factory job he’s at.  Perhaps he had no choice and had to take the job to provide a home for the young bride and child he so dearly loves.  

Perhaps that niece of your brother or sister is fascinated with the library of information you’ve gathered over the years- or the stories you’ve told at family gatherings about farming in your younger days captivates her. 

Does that quiet relative seem to light up when tractors or agricultural pursuits are mentioned?   

The conversations that are needed to continue the legacy are not easy. 

Those conversations are needed.

Being a caretaker of the land is a great responsibility.  

Animals, soils, water, buildings, machinery and equipment, all depend on your ability to keep them healthy, safe or maintained. 

The greatest responsibility though, is finding the one relation or person who shares your passion, and taking the steps to help protect the world of greed from destroying the mutual love of the land that your forefathers instilled in you at a young age and passing that chance on to the next generation.  

What is your legacy?

Who will care for the land your forefathers passed to you?  

What is your dream for the future? 

Will the land and everything you’ve worked for go to the highest bidder?

Will you be put to rest leaving the survivors to feud over a tractor, a building or acres, because one receiver wants to sell and the other wants to farm?  

Will you have the conversations with your children regarding your wishes?

Will your children follow those desires if they’re not in writing?

Will you not wait until it’s too late? 

Will you show a vulnerable side to those who see nothing but strength? 

Will you share those final plans with anyone? 

Will you provide a way for the next generation to live proudly on the centennial land and give them a chance to add another hundred years of family ownership? 

What will happen when the Good Lord calls you home? Will you Rest In Peace? 

Have the conversation today, what is right isn’t always fair, what is fair isn’t always right. 

Put it in writing.

Do not delay. It will not get easier ignoring the difficult conversations that require you to look to a future of the unknown.

Share the worries of ownership with the ones who mean the most to you. The ones that least expect to receive will do your memory the most proud.