By Ethan Wallace, Director, Ontario Federation of Agriculture

A statistic that is often used in relation to our agriculture sector is the fact that Canada’s farmers are getting older, with the average age nation-wide being 56. That means a lot of farm businesses will be changing hands in the next 10 to 15 years as older farmers retire.

At the same time, we know from Census of Agriculture data and from surveys that the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) has done that the majority of farm businesses don’t have a written succession or transition plan for their farm.

The results of this survey, and many conversations with OFA members across the province indicate to us that there is both a willingness, and a need, for farm families to have these often- challenging conversations around the future of their farm businesses.

I know from first-hand experience how incredibly important it is to give careful thought and planning to the future of a family farm business. My wife and I and our children are dairy farmers near Seaforth in Huron County.

We’re on a farm that we were lucky enough to able to take over from my parents and I know that without a succession plan and their willingness to use their equity in the business to support us, it simply wouldn’t have been possible for us financially to follow our dream of farming.

There are many aspects to succession planning, from making sure family members are involved and consulted to properly addressing legal, financial and tax implications, so getting the help of outside experts like a lawyer and an accountant is an important part of the process.

It can seem very daunting when you first look at it on your own, but I know from my own experience that when you’re working with professionals who are experienced in transition and know what needs to happen, it is not that difficult a process.

It can be hard to know where to get started, though, and that’s why OFA has partnered with Farm Life Financial through its member benefit program to make succession planning support more accessible to our members.

This includes preferred rates on their succession planning services, as well as a complimentary on-farm consultation, access to a regional workshop and an annual check-in for the first two years once a transition plan has been completed.

This winter, we’ve worked together with Farm Life to prepare and deliver a series of farm transition planning workshops for OFA members across Ontario. The Farm Life team brings specific and extensive expertise and experience in farm transition and financial planning and these workshops are an easy way, no obligation way to become introduced to the topic.

These sessions have in particular focused on tax advantages and reaching the goals of both generations while maintaining family harmony. That’s not always easy to achieve, and it was something that was very important to all of us in my own family as we were going through this process.

Approximately 260 people have participated in our in- person sessions to date and over 300 have enrolled for an online workshop that will be held on March 1. There is also a recorded webinar available on the OFA website at https://ofa.on.ca/benefit/farm-life/ for farmers who wish to learn a bit more about succession planning on their own.

For more information, contact:

Tyler Brooks
Director of Communications and Stakeholder Relations
Ontario Federation of Agriculture
519-821-8883 ext. 218
tyler.brooks@ofa.on.ca