Cancer gave Willard and Laura Lee Jack a warning shot, and the couple responded with a farm transition plan that they gave to their three children in individual envelopes at Christmas one year. An asset distribution and leadership transition outlined cleanly.
That was about 15 years ago. By the time Willard lost his second battle with cancer early in 2025, he was several years into his new role as “janitor” for the farm and ag businesses operated by two of his three children — or at least Willard told people he was sweeping floors. In truth, the functioning business plan was that he and Laura Lee served on a board for the businesses and the next generation led daily operations.
Watching the farm grow in the hands of the people they raised was deeply satisfying, Willard said in a conversation about a year before he died. “Really,” Willard said, smiling, leaning his head forward and shaking it in wonder. “It’s a pure joy.”
For farmers, the idea of retiring was once unheard of and, as a result, not something that was passed on from the generation before them. For others, letting go — or even relaxing their hold — on something they gave so much to build seems unimaginable.
But it’s the only way the farm can survive into the next generation. Though asset transition often is the key focus when passing down the farm, a complementary succession plan is essential.
Mike Downey, succession planning manager at Uncommon Farms, said the No. 1 trait shared by farms that have successfully transitioned to the next generation is this: “Farms that recognize that there’s a difference between succession and estate planning.”
While estate planning is also a living document that should be regularly revisited, Davon Cook, an ag business coach at Pinion Global, said the succession plan is even more pliable. It’s the people part.
And the earlier it’s launched, the better, she said. That’s successful succession trait No. 2: “Identify and train the successors early.”
Cook divides the leadership transition into four phases:
1. Boots on the ground. The next generation is simply an employee. No leadership transfer is happening. “You’re an employee learning like anybody else,” Cook said.
2. Active learning. The senior generation is intentional about exposing the next generation to more aspects of managing the farm. The next generation is attending business meetings with, for instance, the bank representative or the crop insurance agent, and may also be assigned entry-level management responsibilities.
3. Hands-off approach. This is the most intense phase and lasts the longest, anywhere from three to 10 years. The incoming generation is given increased authority and responsibility.
4. Wise consultation. Cook asked: “What’s the right level of engagement to keep senior leadership involved so they feel good about protecting their investments and using their wisdom, but they’re stepping out of the way enough to let the next gen take leadership?”
At each step along the way, each generation must openly communicate, Cook and Downey agree.
“You can have all of the perfect documents and structure in place, but if you don’t have the crucial conversations, your likelihood of success is pretty low, even if you did everything else right,” Downey said.
Sharpen management
To help bring the next generation on board while developing their leadership acumen, add revenue streams. From a farm financial standpoint, the added revenue helps to appropriately compensate new leadership and more solidly ground the farm.
“Our most successful businesses have three to six revenue sources,” said economist David Kohl, professor emeritus at Virginia Tech’s ag college in Blacksburg.
One of the first difficult conversations for a next generation returning to the farm is compensation. “It’s really hard to go to Mom and Dad and say, ‘To realistically live, I need $95,000,’” said Jessica Groskopf, a Nebraska Extension educator.
But in a state where child care costs $25,000 a year, that may be your number. In 2024, living expenses for a four-member family in Nebraska were $90,000.
The bonus is that additional business ventures are prime ground for developing leadership and management skills.
Diversifying a farm’s revenue stream is smart management no matter how many generations are involved, said Scott Jarck, vice president for national lending at Agri-Access.
“It’s scary to go into a new enterprise,” he said. “But if you don’t, what happens?”
A new enterprise is an added value, not a replacement plan. “Can you try and maybe grow 80 acres of a specialty crop? We’re not talking about blowing your whole operation up,” Jarck said. “But is there an opportunity for you to try to step out into something new, or to try to do something new, better or different?”
To increase their economic odds, the retiring generation should use the next generation to diversify the operation, Kohl said. It’s where economic opportunity can meet new leadership. And he sees an incoming generation with strong business skills.
During a recent program for young farmers, Kohl recognized three things they are doing well:
- tracking and monitoring financial performance
- mastering cash flow
- executing and monitoring a risk management plan
Without land equity and strong balance sheets, young farmers don’t have a financial shield from management mistakes. They’re shoring up the risk with heightened business acumen, Kohl said. “A solid positive amid the negative news and headlines in agriculture today is that young producers are using tools that place the odds in their favor,” he said.
Learn from generational experience
Corporate knowledge is a highly valuable resource in any business, but perhaps particularly so on a farm. Lydia Wagy’s family is working to ensure history does not repeat itself on their Missouri farm. King Hill Farms has always been diversified, but its forebears did not formally write a succession plan and develop on-farm leadership, she said.
And the succession plan of her grandfather, L.E. Manson, was not well-communicated. As a result, completing the transition after his death took her dad, Paul Manson; his brother Meredith; and a brother-in-law about 15 years. Today, with two brothers each bringing in a next generation, a legal trust is in place.
Those experiences, plus Wagy and her husband’s desire to farm, help drive her dedication to her farming customers at Regional Missouri Bank, where she is a regional vice president.
As her children played in a turned field, Wagy contemplated the value of raising them on the farm, where they can learn the skills and work ethic that support their success. “We aren’t just checking a box,” Wagy said. “It really does come back to having the same goal: What’s best for them.”
To help in such endeavors, her bank is restarting an annual program on succession planning, because what works for one farm family may not work for another.
But what works for all is learning the financial and communication skills necessary to work through a successful succession plan — no matter if “them” is your customer or your next generation.