Think Beyond the Driveway: Why Farm Transition Planning Is a Community Issue
When farmers and ranchers begin planning for the next chapter of their operation, the conversation often centers on family: who will take over, how the land will be divided, what the succession timeline looks like. But according to Alan Hojer, Legacy Director for Keep Farmers Farming, there's a bigger picture that too often gets left out of the conversation: the rural community itself.
"We need to think beyond our driveway when we look at ourselves and everything that we've built over the years," Hojer says. "It makes you look at everything a little different. Yes, our family is a primary focus, but you know what? Without our communities, it'll feel like some of the stuff was for naught as well."
Every Purchase Decision Ripples Outward
Hojer believes the economic strength of rural America depends on a close relationship between local agriculture and local business, and that relationship is more fragile than many producers realize.
When wealth leaves a community, he explains, it doesn't just affect the family that moved away. It affects the businesses that relied on that family's presence, and the town that relied on those businesses.
"As wealth leaves the community, that can have an impact if our family members are no longer there and the generational experience didn't happen," Hojer says. "But just the margin from the business that's generated with each and every purchase, if that leaves the community, then that even has additional pressure on the community as well."
It's a reminder that where a producer chooses to spend a dollar (the local implement dealer versus a big box retailer three hours away, the hometown bank versus an out of state lender) carries weight well beyond that single transaction.
The Real Test: How Wealth Transitions
For Hojer, the second and perhaps more consequential piece of the puzzle is what happens to an operation's wealth when the current generation steps back.
"How we transition that wealth to the next generation that's going to be farming and operation and keeping that business viable will have a direct impact on that local community as well," he says. "So if it gets dispersed, it gets sold, that wealth leaves the community."
This is where Keep Farmers Farming plays its role. The program works alongside ag producers to help plan a transition that keeps the operation, and the wealth tied to it, active in the local economy. That might mean passing the operation to children or grandchildren, but it doesn't have to stop there.
Hojer points to a range of possibilities: children, grandchildren, or the neighbor kid looking for an opportunity to get into agriculture. Each one is another way of keeping a farm, and the community around it, alive.
A Vision for Rural South Dakota
At the heart of Hojer's message is a call to the senior generation of farmers and ranchers: the choices made today about the future of an operation are choices about the future of an entire community.
It's not an either/or between family and community. It's a both/and. A strong transition plan protects the family legacy while also protecting the local businesses, tax base, and generational knowledge that keep small towns viable.
As Hojer puts it, thinking beyond the driveway isn't a distraction from what a producer has built. It's what makes that work mean something for the long haul.
Taken from a conversation with Pam Geppert from Dakota Farm Talk.