While farmers decide to stop farming or sell their farmland for a lot of reasons, often it happens when land passes from one generation to another. These transitions are hard and only made more difficult by the complexity of farming operations now.

A lot of people are not aware of the resources available and figuring out the best way for someone to pass along farmland is going to be different for different situations. Is one (or more) of the children interested in farming the land? Is the farm in a good financial condition to be able to sustain another generation living off the same business? What is the level of debt associated with the land and other assets?

Navigating a path through a situation that involves three tough topics – death, money, and land – is hard.

Figuring out the transition of your farm and the land can be complicated. Then again, many farming decisions are complicated.

And we have to talk about farm transitions or the number of acres is going to continue to decline and more acres will be owned by developers, out-of-state investment groups, or individuals with little interest in our local, rural communities.

So while figuring out the best way to transition out of farming can be difficult, doing it in the right way for your farming operation can make a huge difference.

This Initiative is here to help. Check out Resources that can give you a good start in the process and provide more information about your situation in Get Involved so that we can figure out what can be done to improve farmland transitions in Kentucky.