Unlike other businesses, farms are deeply personal, often hinged on the balance of financial decisions made by multiple generations. With many of these generations working together in day-to-day tasks, financial transparency can be the catalyst that maximizes the benefits of each generation’s perspective. Being open about finances isn’t just good practice — it’s essential for business survival and harmony in our family relationships.

So, why should we care about having these discussions with our family? While financial transparency may not mean opening up the farm books in their entirety, what matters is that each group of people has the information they need to make educated decisions. Operating a farm requires management to make major decisions such as buying land, expanding herds and purchasing equipment.

Why it matters: Everyone working within a farm business needs to be able to make informed decisions about their future within it.

Some individuals may need the information to decide whether the farm can sustain the lifestyle that they desire, and the need to supplement with off-farm income. Without a clear understanding of the financial position of the farm, it’s essentially impossible to make these costly decisions from a position of reality instead of guesswork. Financial transparency also cultivates an environment of trust among the family and diminishes suspicions about unfair compensations, hidden profits or unequal workloads. These suspicions can grow when lack of information is presented. It can also create opportunities to discuss shared expectations and reduce friction by eliminating assumptions.

Why do so many families struggle with financial discussion even in light of its importance?

Conflict avoidance and fear of judgement. Some individuals view finances as private information and believe that by discussing it with others it invites potential conflict. However, silence and avoidance ignore the future need for clarity within the business or family — and this can create uncertainty and even greater tension over time.

Some family members may also fear being judged. For example, some family members may avoid discussions around specific areas of the financial statements, such as large amounts of debt, because they are concerned they will be criticized or fear others may lose confidence in their leadership.

Financial literacy. Another major barrier can be unequal financial literacy, either perceived or in reality. It’s common for different family members to have different strengths around finances and numeracy or different ways of understanding the financials. While one individual may have a deep understanding of accounting, loans, debt servicing, income planning and taxes, others may not. Without taking the time to clarify terms, build knowledge and understanding, and define concepts practically so they can be integrated into business literacy, added transparency may seem overwhelming and futile.

What does financial transparency look like?

Having established the importance of these discussions and outlining some potential barriers, what does it actually mean to be financially transparent? Achieving the essentials of financial transparency does not require sharing every personal expense or removing clear boundaries in leadership.

Understanding financial structure and direction. Transparency involves exploring shared understanding of the financial structure and direction of the business in the areas that are important to each individual.

Clear accounting records. In order to accomplish this, we must first establish clear accounting records and systems that make the information readily available. These records can include financial statements, budgets, loan statements and previous tax filings. While having these documents available is a great first step, it may not be enough to make sure everyone is on the same page.

Regular financial meetings. Whether monthly or quarterly, these can provide structured time to review these documents and establish clear expectations for the future. Creating a scheduled time for discussions also allows for people to come with questions regarding information that is important for their role.

Role clarity. If it’s not clear what roles people are in, this may be another important area of financial transparency to explore. Taking the time to honestly evaluate who does what, who is carrying financial risk and how compensation is determined helps eliminate assumptions and feelings of inequity. In the spirit of establishing clear roles and responsibilities, it is also important to establish defined policies for major financial decisions.

When it comes to certain decisions such as, say, capital improvements, land deals or equipment purchases, it’s wise to take the time to agree on procedures that outline important stages of the decision. For example, who has authority to make these decisions? How many people need to be involved? Who decides that the financial investment is appropriate and how the decisions get funded? Establishing procedures removes ambiguity and creates clear lines of communication among the team.

Transition/succession plans. Finally, transparency also means clearly documented and communicated succession plans. Succession has the potential to be one of the most emotionally charged financial conversations within farm families. Transparency means having discussions around inheritance, buyouts, expectations for retiring or incoming generations and how to successfully transition management roles over time.

While these discussions may present unique challenges, not having these discussions can lead to significant relationship barriers and costly financial mishaps. Planning processes are ongoing and it is unreasonable to expect that everyone has all the answers. The key to a healthy business and flourishing relationships is financial transparency and increased understanding.

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For many folks the holidays can be a difficult season. Surrounded by merriment, many people experience loneliness, heartache for previously strong but now broken family connections, or the emptiness felt from the loss of loved ones. Several farming families I have coached have found Christmas time to be difficult as they are still navigating farm transition conversations with some unresolved conflicts. Even for those who have family and friends to spend time with, gatherings focused on desserts and gift-giving cannot distract a farmer who is worried about the price of wheat or how to rewrite the will. Just when things have slowed down and you are reflecting on how stressful harvest was because of the ill-timed rain, someone wishes you “peace and joy.” The last thing you likely need is someone telling you “it’s the most wonderful time of year” while handing you a holiday card full of smiling faces.

What is it about joy that makes it difficult to feel?

I can’t say I’ve met a lot of farmers who have talked openly about moments of joy, I think because farming is so unpredictable in nature. In her book Atlas of the Heart, which is essentially an encyclopedia of emotions, Brene Brown defines joy as a “feeling of deep spiritual connection, pleasure and appreciation.” This is an emotion that a farmer may have difficulty embracing at times, given the challenges of running a business at the mercy of Mother Nature. Brown adds that joy is “the most vulnerable human emotion” because people have a hard time allowing themselves to “lean into good news [and] wonderful moments … because we believe if we allow ourselves to feel joy, we are inviting disaster.” Brown calls this “foreboding joy” — the idea that in a moment of potential happiness, we are waiting for something bad to happen. You may have experienced this at harvest time when your crop is coming in and you are seeing better yields than you expected. You want to feel hopeful in the moment — maybe even happy — but instead you think about and anticipate something bad happening that could affect your bottom line.

What if, this holiday season, we give ourselves a break from the pressure to feel joy if it’s not working for us? One alternative could be focusing on contentment, a state of being that Brown calls “the feeling of completeness, appreciation and ‘enoughness’ that we experience when our needs are satisfied.” Brown explains that “contentment is about satisfaction, and that, ironically, is an unsatisfying idea for a lot of people.” In a world that seems obsessed with over-the-top moments of happiness and seeking out all of the ways to buy and experience these moments, it can be hard to allow ourselves to feel just… fulfilled, not more or less. Think about the time you saw your neighbour’s new combine and thought, Wouldn’t I be happier if I had one? Brown concludes with “If we’re not satisfied with our life as a whole, does this mean we need to go and get and do the stuff that will make us satisfied… or does this mean we stop taking for granted what we have so we can experience real contentment and enoughness?”

I have seen many farm families experience contentment together after their second family meeting where we facilitate dialogue. Any tensions felt at the first meeting have decreased thanks to us addressing major conflicts that were previously not being talked about constructively. Everyone has had his or her voice heard, has expressed thoughts and feelings openly and has been able to share a hope or vision for the farm. There are no unrealistic outlooks giving false hope or pressure to be happy with anticipated changes to come. What is felt by those in the meeting is an appreciation for where the farm is at now, even without the new combine, and a sense of sufficiency because the family has realized keeping the farm and family intact is more important than buying the newest model.

Here are some ways to feel more content this holiday season:

Share the tough moments

When someone reaches out to wish you that “Merry Christmas” don’t be afraid to admit that it was a tough year. Just because it’s implied that the holidays are meant to be joyful, you can give yourself grace if that’s not how it feels.

Celebrate the small wins

You may not have figured out the perfect crop rotation for that new seed variety but you got through another growing season in good health. There is so much to appreciate on the farm when things are working well, even when the new or bigger goals are not yet accomplished.

Practice gratitude

I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but research shows gratitude can improve sleep, mental health, physical wellbeing and more. Robert Emmons, a professor of psychology at the University of California, explains that gratitude helps us appreciate what we have instead of seeking out new things to make us happy. He writes, “gratitude makes us appreciate the value of something… we’re less likely to take it for granted.” While this practice may seem oversimplified, research has shown that adopting small habits of expressing gratitude, individually or in teams, can have a big impact.

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Reflection, curiosity and continuing education are learned and intentional parts of how we run our farm in southwestern Manitoba. Reflective questions help us make decisions for what we might need to change or do differently in future: “What are the things we need to learn about and integrate to make our business and family dynamic and farm better?”

As entrepreneurs, and producers, we often focus heavily on production, marketing and finance. These are good things, and certainly play a role in some of the questions asked above. One area we have been exploring more in our farm and business — and I often encourage other entrepreneurs to invest more in via my facilitation work — is human resources training. Learning the people side of things is particularly helpful if you have employees or work multi-generationally. It can also help with spousal and sibling partnerships.

Here are some key areas that fall under HR management, where skills development can be as critical for your operation as your production and marketing plans:

Staff training and retention

We need people to work on our farms. We require the skills and abilities to provide training and upskilling opportunities for ourselves and also for staff and the next generation. There is a huge incentive to retain key talent and skilled labour, to ensure continuity and capture intergenerational knowledge. Staff training and retention efforts can have significant impact on farm and ranch culture too. Providing learning and training opportunities, seeking feedback or simply posting a sign that says “We care” (while acting accordingly) can make a huge difference. Compensation can also be an issue in staff retention, so company culture that improves profitability and reduces waste (in the form of time and material waste) and focuses on liveable wages can make a big difference.

Conflict resolution and mediation

If you are looking for skill building that can change your workplace for the better — and help you raise your kids and get along with your spouse — you can start here. Conflict is everywhere, and conflict is not bad. You can be in a good conflict. Years ago, when I started taking conflict resolution and mediation training, my ‘aha’ moment was when I realized conflict skills are real and unskilled or destructive conflict prevents people from more creative forms of conflict and problem-solving. A major issue in farm transitions, family business and workplaces is unspoken and unresolved conflict.

These skills can also help when having difficult conservations around implementing new policies and best practices or exploring complex or new governance and role clarity on the farm. Many institutions and organizations provide in-person and online learning. I can sit at my farm kitchen table in Manitoba and take a course from the Justice Institute of B.C. in Vancouver — or I have the option of an in-person course at Mediation Services in Winnipeg.

Cultural and organizational alignment

What is the culture of your farm? What are your values? Knowing your culture and discussing your values can help bring you into organizational and familial alignment. Values are not prescribed, but are discussed and embraced. You have individual values and organization values. Do you value honesty, co-operation, independence, security — or is it courage, accountability, compassion and creativity? There are many more and there is no wrong answer. What’s important is to ensure alignment between family values and business goals.

What happens when different family members or family units in a business value different things? Perhaps exploring core values is more central and training can give you the skills to do and lead that effectively. Having a clear set of core values can help with leadership integration and next-generation transition as well as a founder’s exit.

Policy and governance

One recommendation for young farmers, as you step into management and leadership on your own farms, is to seek out opportunities to sit on a volunteer board and learn there about governance and policy. So often on farms, rules are not written but held in stories, histories and memory. It can be really helpful to explore, set up and practice policies that clarify expectations around matters such as compensation, perks or workplace accountability, and to have a more professional standard in a family-run environment where people might make assumptions about what others are supposed to be doing. Having a space and some skill to explore policy and governance does not mean you need to take the fun out of farming, but it can add clarity around roles, responsibilities, performance, asset transfer and transition, among other things. You might also have policies around safety and equipment use, social media, sourcing and family member engagement.

Family and non-family dynamics

It is important to appreciate and navigate the complexity of relationships and family histories within family businesses. This can be a difficult and ongoing challenge that requires skill building and personal and team work. Appreciating the unique dynamics between family members and employees can be key to the sustainability and future success of the farm or ranch.

If you have non-family employees who play significant roles in the current and future success of your business, it is important to have objective criteria for fair treatment of non-family employees and family in the business throughout a transition. When leadership changes, it’s important to communicate clearly with employees and for members of the leadership team to have training to support the continuity of employee satisfaction as well as their own confidence in leading a team, whether it be family members or non-family employees.

Investing in leadership training can build additional trust among team members and also reduce destructive conflict cycles.

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Recently, I was sent a newsletter from a local grain buyer titled “Seven Ways to Streamline Your Farm Marketing.” The author highlighted several tips to overhaul your thinking when it comes to grain marketing. The goal was to ease the overwhelm that many feel when it comes to marketing their grain.

As an advisor, I agreed with all of the tips. As a coach, it struck me how much the list paralleled transition planning work — an area where many feel overwhelmed as well. For each marketing tip listed, I came up with a similar piece of advice for transition planning.

The first: “focus on profit, not price.” In other words, price is only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to profit. Your focus should be on the whole picture — on achieving a specific profit margin, not just a specific price. As an advisor, I think that’s good advice. As a coach, I also think it’s good advice. Consider a family farm owner who focuses primarily on getting the business to the next generation but doesn’t give much attention to creating a healthy business culture. It’s a good primary focus but shouldn’t be the only area that gets attention. A healthy business culture will create next-generation family members who want to be involved instead of getting burned out and leaving. Shifting some focus toward the culture on your farm will pay dividends down the road.

The second tip: “commit to planning.” The author explained how using your historical yields and tracking your costs will help answer key questions regarding profit margin, how much to sell, when to sell and at what price. As an advisor, I like this tip. We all know expecting our plans to be followed exactly is foolish but that doesn’t mean making plans is. As a coach I’d say the same thing. Make a plan for the future of your farm business. Where do you want to be in a few years? Ten years? What are your family members planning for their futures? How are you planning to transition ownership of your business to the next generation?

And just like making a marketing plan, succession plans can go out the window at any moment. But that doesn’t matter, because the real value of committing to a plan is that it creates conversation and gets everyone on the same page. So many farm families never talk about their plans, then when the unexpected happens chaos ensues and family farms die.

Forward progress

Tip number three was to “establish a reasonable desired profit.” Every farmer would love to sell their canola at $28/bu. and walk away with a $650/acre profit. While that price was available just a few years ago — and $28 for canola is probably once in a lifetime — it wouldn’t be reasonable to plan a budget with a selling price that high.

The parallel advice for succession planning would be to make a reasonable amount of progress each year. Succession doesn’t have to happen overnight but it does need to happen. It’s difficult, tedious work that is often complex and awkward — but if you don’t schedule that meeting, nobody will. Issues that could be solved in a few conversations can drag on for years because they get booted to the bottom of the priority list. Set some realistic goals and make forward progress.

The fourth tip on the list was to “sell meaningful amounts.” In other words, you must sell all your inventory to make a profit. That’s a no-brainer, isn’t it? Keeping grain in the bin forever won’t generate any money.

My corresponding advice for this one is to make your business more meaningful. What are your core values and how can you align your actions with those values? Cultivate deep and authentic relationships and find purpose in something larger than yourself. Practice living in the moment while acknowledging and appreciating the good things in your life.

Number five: “expose yourself to the market.” The author explains how there are resources or tools available that can help you reach your profit margin goals — resources such as hedging, target contracts and futures-only or basis-only contracts. Another resource would be a grain marketing advisor like myself, wink wink.

You also need to “expose yourself to the market” when working through a succession plan. Accountants, lawyers, investment/financial advisors and communication/conflict coaches are commonly part of the team of professionals that assist farm families. You are not alone; ask for help when you need it.

The sixth tip on the list was to “understand crop insurance.” Farming is a risky venture and knowing how crop insurance works can reduce your risk and protect your revenue. Most of you use crop insurance — you don’t have to farm for long before counting on it to cover poor weather.

Insurance is also important for your succession plan. Sometimes that can look like a life insurance tool that is used to transfer equity to a non-farming sibling. Sometimes insurance can be in the form of inter-spousal agreements or unanimous shareholder agreements that work to protect the longevity of your farm business. Another form of insurance is to write down all your verbal agreements and have them notarized by a lawyer.

The final advice given on the list was to “avoid the hecklers.” The author describes how listening to myths or fables about marketing can distract you from the plan you made earlier. As an advisor, I hear the coffee shop fables where a producer brags about how much they sold their wheat for. While there may be some truth to these stories, they don’t tell the whole story and often omit the ugly truths.

Myths surround succession planning work as well — for example, “there is a right way and a wrong way to do it” or “other people have it all figured out” or “it’s too hard and can’t be done.” Myths like this can keep you from moving forward with your own succession. It’s important to ignore these false messages and focus on your own situation. Avoid the naysayers, listen to your mentors.

A good marketing plan is not unlike a healthy succession process. There are ways to streamline both of them to lessen the overwhelm you may feel about them. Remember, you are not alone in this work.

The post Seven ways to streamline your farm transition appeared first on Grainews.

The driving force

I have worked in multiple accounting offices in my career thus far, and each office uses the same primary driver to determine invoice amounts for clients – time. Some of you may be thinking, “Well, my accountant doesn’t charge me for every phone call or meeting.” While you might be right, the time still likely gets tracked on your file to determine how much your overall bill should be. So, consider this when interacting with your accountant — make sure you are getting value out of your conversations and meetings.

READ MORE: Common pitfalls in farm finances

One of the largest, most time-consuming factors reflected on your bill is messy bookkeeping. This is one area that farmers typically have some control over. For some of you, bookkeeping is a thorn in your side, and the idea of spending more time learning how to improve your processes sounds like a nightmare. That’s OK — you might just pay your accountant more. But, for those of you who want to see your next accounting bill go down, it might require some effort on your end to understand what improvements need to be made.

The best way to achieve this is by thoroughly reviewing and understanding the adjusting journal entries your accountant has made to your records. If you are unsure of why amounts were adjusted, it is likely that the same error will be made again next year, costing you a second time for the same mistake. It may not be realistic to eliminate all adjustments, as some are a result of complex calculations, such as your tax amounts. However, as a rule, the fewer the adjusting entries, the lower your overall bill is likely to be.

Make the most out of your meetings

When dealing with the same accountant for years on end, annual meetings can become somewhat routine — lacking in the value they once had. While more time gets consumed “catching up” with your advisors, it can feel like significant time was spent sitting in a boardroom with little or no insight gained. So, here is what you can do to make sure you are paying for valuable time with your accountant:

Take some time to reflect on the prior year’s operations in advance. This time of reflection can add a lot of great discussion to your meeting. For example, consider asking for a copy of your financial statements prior to the meeting so that you can go through it in detail ahead of time. Even if you don’t understand every detail of your financial statements, reviewing them first could highlight areas worth discussing.

Come prepared with questions. I have had meetings with individuals who come with pages of questions and it usually adds a lot of valuable insight to both parties. It helps guide the conversation as well as provides your accountant with a deeper understanding of what is important to you and your business. This understanding can ensure your accountant is considering your values and long-term goals throughout the year. As rules and regulations are constantly changing, if your accountant knows what your goals and concerns are, it’s easier for them to strategize on your behalf as new tax rules enter the arena.

Less can be more

Logically speaking, bringing your files to your accountant should make things a lot easier for them, right? Wrong. While this might be a point of convenience for you, you are likely paying for it.

I have had clients bring in what feels like the entirety of every record in their office. Every invoice, every receipt, for the entire year. Yes, this means that if your accountant needs to see a bill of sale for a new combine you purchased in the year, they can just go get it from your mobile office. But this also means you are spending money for your accountant to look through your records to try and find it. Not every farm has the same filing system as you. And nobody knows yours better — making you the most efficient at finding what’s needed.

So, give your accountant only what they need. It may take some time to understand what it is that they need and why but having a discussion with your accountant the next time you meet with them could help highlight what “typical” records are required for your accountant.

Hiring the right accountant

While this may not be a required step for some of you, I have had many conversations with farmers who are not satisfied with their current advisors. Some spend years dissatisfied with the same accountant because it requires effort to make a change.

Some might argue that there is a benefit to keeping the same accountant because they understand your farm history. While this may be true in some cases, if your current accountant is not meeting your needs, sometimes a fresh pair of professional eyes can make a significant impact on the profitability of your business.

Finding the right advisor for your needs is critical. So, if you have been thinking about making a change, here is your permission to shop around for a new accountant.

Across the board, professional fees keep rising with inflation and the demand on accountants continues to increase as fewer individuals enter the industry – a recipe for larger bills for everyone.

By reducing your adjusting journal entries, coming prepared to your meetings, cutting out the excess information and ensuring you are working with the right accountant, you might just have a fighting chance at keeping more money in your jeans while still gaining valuable insight from your advisors.

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“Resiliency” means “an ability to recover from or adjust easily to adversity or change.” It is an ability we can work on. Here are some considerations to build this ability for you and as an example to your family and/or team.

Communication

Even though this ability may sound complicated or new, we can start with simple steps that help us become aware of how we were taught to communicate.

Let’s experiment: when was the last time you had a conversation with your spouse, children or coworker about a childhood memory or about another important memory of their youth? If you have had one, great.

You may not remember the last time you had a conversation like this. When working with family, we can easily fill the family time with discussions about the farm operation. Certainly, we want and need to talk about the farm operation — though these conversations do not always need to occur at birthday celebrations or at dinner. Operational conversations should be held as much as possible in designated spaces during specific times — and physically where you can write down tasks on a whiteboard or make notes for the team to be accountable for the tasks they need to complete.

By creating specific times for operational meetings, you can save space to celebrate and communicate about other important aspects of life beyond the farm and become more intentional in the process. This intentional approach will enable you to create spaces that foster more profound understanding and connection among the family and farm team. Though we might think we know each other because we are family, I’m convinced that as humans, we change and grow throughout our lives. Cohesion means being aware of each other without assuming we know each other.

I invite you to choose a lovely afternoon to invite your farm team to enjoy a light snack or s’mores around a bonfire or fireplace and ask them to share their favourite childhood game or memory. These conversations build connection as they transmit the message “I care about you and the things that are meaningful to you” and “I can trust you while I am sharing this story with you.” This is highly important, as good communication skills start with being able to listen to someone else’s story and really care about what they are sharing. Remember: we listen to understand, not to respond.

Trust

This is an important one. A good friend and colleague, Sidney Morgan, created a helpful framework called the “Four Pillars of Trust.” This framework breaks down the complex concept of trust into four distinct pillars: one of those is the pillar of respect.

Morgan explains respect as the union of “re,” meaning “again,” and “spect” meaning “spectacles,” which translates as “to see again through different spectacles.”

This means that trust develops when we cultivate the ability to see things from different perspectives. It means I acknowledge that when I share my thoughts and opinions, I do so from a limited point of view.

I invite you to do an experiment. Tomorrow, pause your response for a minute when in conversation with your spouse, mom or dad, or daughter or son, and ask, “Could you explain more why you think that way?” Also, if you are about to give advice or comment, stop and ask, “Would you like to hear my point of view here?”

Habits

These refer to the actions and thoughts we repeat constantly — and we repeat them so much through the years that they become invisible to us. We assume things should be that way, and then, when the habits we practice no longer serve us, they become blinders that limit our awareness and alertness to what happens in our surroundings.

This invites us to embark on the journey of becoming self-aware, which means sitting down with ourselves and reflecting healthily on the habits we have while leading or engaging with our family. When things feel calm or you have a moment’s break, you can take a couple of hours early in the morning, afternoon or evening to reflect on the ways you make decisions at the farm, or the quality of the relationships you have with your family, or on strategies to start a conversation on strategic topics such as farm transition.

I encourage you to develop skills that enhance your flexibility, awareness and ability to observe with depth. Families that work together and strengthen their relationships will build resilience in how they respond to various challenges each day.

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I have talked to many farmers who are keen to learn from others and apply their learning to their land and stock management and farm businesses practices. Successors and founders alike are taking courses, reading, sharing with their peers, going to events and conferences — the types of things that can contribute to farm and farmer success and wellbeing.

Here are some ideas for how to stay curious and maintain a learner’s mindset on the farm.

Engage with next-gen new energy and new ideas

People on your team, often the next generation, will come to the founders and farm partners to express that they want to try something new, or to ask questions about why things are done a certain way. The motivation might be to gain better understanding and contribute to some shifts or improvements to human resources management or staffing, increase profitability or add a new revenue stream, make changes to grazing or crop planning to manage the resource base, work to access new markets, or apply new learning. Expressing an interest in new ideas or trying new things demonstrates a degree of leadership, enthusiasm and interest in the work. Coming forward with new ideas can take courage, vulnerability and trust, especially if new ideas or free thinking haven’t been given space or been received well in the past.

I often talk to next-generations of farmers who feel frustrated there is not enough room or space to try something new. Note, though, it can also be the case that folks assume there is no room for new ideas, and the real issue is one of open communication rather than having an open mind. When people want some influence and agency to try something new, and are faced with “This is the way the grandparents always did it,” enthusiasm and creativity can be dampened. I am first-generation on my farm and while the cash flow challenges of running a startup presented a major hurdle, the independence of getting to try things (and sometimes having them not work out) served to build my entrepreneurial skills, resilience and creativity from a young adult age. Of course, some things have been tried before, and it can be wise to seek advice and wisdom from others via mentorship rather than have to make the same mistakes over again. It’s a balance: open communication and a culture of learning and curiosity and leaning into wisdom, mentorship and traditional knowledge are all very important.

Join (or organize) a peer group

Over the years I have been a part of a number of farmer-to-farmer peer support and learning groups. These have been great spaces to hear about what others are doing on the operations side of their business and also to create space for community. Some of those peer groups have been very family-friendly while others have been more focused on finances and production. Years ago, we hosted a series of peer group meetings in our local hall, and people would drive from hundreds of kilometres away to join. It was a great space to come together, and often share a meal. We would present topics to one another and discuss some of the finer details of managing our cattle, grain and vegetable operations and share and discuss other aspects of working and living where we do in Manitoba. We could ask questions, explore ideas and redefine measures of success for our farms. Our peer groups have changed and morphed over the years, and have contributed to building a web of connections across Canada and the U.S.

Embrace change

Farmers can feel significant amounts of stress when faced with change, especially when a change was not planned or foreseen. Faced with financial difficulty and uncertainty, high debt load, overwork, labour shortages and climate variability, making small changes to a system that seems to be working relatively well can be daunting or unappetizing. Years of experience in a particular way of doing something moves us toward a “right way” and a “wrong way.” Negative emotions that come with unforeseen changes, or hardship related to change, can cause us to miss opportunities for positive change. On the other hand, embracing positive emotions around change, such as hope, curiosity, creativity or optimism, can create a lot of possible options that we might not otherwise see. Exploring change can foster co-operative working relationships with employees, spouses and team members and within farm transitions, and allows us to move from zero-sum to mutually beneficial outcomes as we shift and move.

Calculate your risk and keep an open mind

When new ideas are brought to the table, or members of the farm team go out seeking new learnings and other ways of doing and seeing things, this either may be embraced or may lead to tension at home. Sometimes a desire for change by one party can be interpreted as an identity issue for the other party — say, maybe the next generation thinks the founder was ‘incorrect’ or ‘wrong.’ The culture of your farm will create the space for learners and changemakers to feel comfortable, and knowing that past contributions and future learning are complementary, not adversarial, can lead you toward better outcomes in communication and team building.

Often I hear from founders that successors have not been working on the farm for 30-plus years; they don’t have the experience to understand the potential outcomes and risks of specific decisions, or sometimes it is a spouse saying they do not want to start a new project or engage in major systems changes at this age or stage of life. It is important to know the “why” or the interests behind our desires for change and to keep learning from one another as we adapt, shift and transition.

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