When a person goes through a major change in life, they experience a downward trend of negative emotions — often expressed as anger or sadness — before they can fully accept that change.
Tag Archives farm succession
Adapt to change with the power of grief
Farm Family Coach: Major changes — even the ones we know are for the better — will come with a surge of negative emotions
Grandma, stop hurting your family’s farm transition
Seeds of Encouragement: Hard commitment to a late spouse’s wishes may not align with what’s now happening in the business
The situation: A mom is not willing to consider that her dead husband’s wishes — which she wants to honour – may not be the best direction for the farm or the family in the current situation of 2025.
Editor’s Rant: Thanks, Elaine
Much of Elaine Froese’s life has been devoted to helping farm families communicate in healthy and productive ways
Thanks to our friend and longtime contributor Elaine Froese, whose final Seeds of Encouragement column appears in this issue. It takes a special kind of person to want to help people navigate their way through conflict.
Get great transition plans in place now and make my heart sing
Seeds of Encouragement: When you let go of things, you need something to move toward
Thirty years ago this week I published my first column with Grainews. It has been an honour to hear stories from readers on the steps they have taken to better their lives.
How to get started on the succession road
If you’ve resolved to start transitioning the farm, consider these insights
The skills that farmers require to successfully navigate the retirement and transition process are not necessarily the same skills that built the business.
Gifts with a warm hand, not a cold one
Seeds of Encouragement: Quietly hoping things somehow all work out when you die is asking for trauma later
Many readers fear greed and entitlement arising in any succession and inheritance discussions now, so they quietly hope things will just work out somehow when they die. “Let the kids work it out on their own” is the thought — which is like lighting a match to gas.
Parents retiring, leaving farm to two sons
Farm Financial Planner: A sale of personal assets to a farm corporation is subject to a now-increased capital gains exemption
A couple we’ll call Jared, 68, and Leanne, 66, from eastern Manitoba, have built a successful grain farming operation. They have three sons: Josh, 40; Craig, 38; and Shawn, 36. Jared and Leanne want to work toward retirement. The plan is to have Josh and Craig take over. Josh and Craig have both been farming […] Read more
Two brothers want to merge two farms, simplify ownership
Farm Financial Planner: Maximizing the proceeds from their estates for the benefit of charities will take some planning
In south-central Manitoba, two brothers who we’ll call Herb, 75 and Fred, 60, have farmed for more than 40 years. They’ve raised cattle and produced mixed grains. Neither has married and there are no children or other obvious heirs. In their four decades of farming the brothers have built up substantial off-farm assets. There’s enough non-registered […] Read more
Great questions to uncover inheritance expectations
Seeds of Encouragement: Keeping a farm intact can complicate the process, but not insurmountably so
One of the key fears of aging farm founders is the conflict they anticipate when the farming heir has access to millions of dollars of land, and the siblings who are off to other careers do not have the same net worth opportunity in their future. Or do they? Firstly, where it is written that […] Read more
Using common ground for written agreements
Seeds of Encouragement: Put intentions and interests into well written words before change inevitably comes
I hope you are reading this on your phone while waiting in the field, which would mean #plant2024 conditions are perfect to go. The type of “common ground” I refer to in the headline is not your soil; it’s the things everyone on your farm team is committed to work toward. As mediators in conflict […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
