JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — For east central Missouri farmer Mark Scott, last year was a reminder of the variety in the farming experience. It was a year of flooding, and he had fields in the Missouri River bottom that did not get planted. But he also had fields on higher ground that utilized the abundant moisture to produce good yields.

“We had an excellent corn crop,” he says.

BRANDON, Iowa — Craig Albert says he was ready for some help.

The Buchanan County farmer was not ready to retire, but he knew he needed to slow down, and that help was just down the road.

COOKSVILLE, Ill. — The Scholl and O’Neall families have been neighbors and acquaintances for at least four generations, and business partners for 20 years.

O’Neall & Scholl Farms is a blended operation led by a father and son from both the O’Neall family, based near Cooksville, Illinois, and the Scholl family now living in Owensboro, Kentucky.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — It’s easy to procrastinate on completing a big task if there are a lot of little parts to get together. But progress is made by doing a bit at a time. So it is for estate and succession planning, said Cari Rincker, a family and agricultural lawyer in east central Illinois.

“It’s really important to have something done,” she said.