Making succession plans for future generations can and should start early.

Joe Koenen is a University of Missouri Extension ag business specialist based in Putnam County, and he says it is important to have a written estate plan, but also to talk with family members about the plan.

Planning how to ease the next generation into farming is something that many families put off for too long.

Grant Strom and his sister Joanie Stiers are happy that their Knox County, Illinois, family isn’t one of those families.

The farm crisis of the mid-’80s not only cost thousands of farmers their land, it cost agriculture a good chunk of an entire generation.

“Those that started farming in 1966 to 1970, they were able to buy cheaper land,” says Paul Lasley, retired Extension sociologist with Iowa State University. “But when younger farmers started looking, the wheels came off the wagon with high land prices and record inflation. Those good times they expected were gone.”

Farmers have a variety of tools available for managing their estate and succession planning. University of Missouri Extension ag business specialist Joe Koenen says a revocable trust gives farmers some flexibility.

“If you’re a small farmer, a living or revocable trust works well because you avoid probate,” Koenen says.

While many farmers today are the sons and daughters of farmers, there are still young people joining the career and lifestyle as first-generation farmers.

Derek and Garret Stewart are central Illinois brothers who had a dream since childhood to farm. Having no family farm or land to work with, it seemed like a pretty tough dream to achieve.