MEXICO, Mo. — Andrew Cauthorn’s family has farmed in fertile Audrain County since at least the 1830s. That is just when the family showed up on tax records, so it’s possible they were there earlier, Andrew jokes.

He always wanted to farm, and after working a summer internship with the cooperative MFA Incorporated, he and his dad, John, had a conversation about what Andrew’s farming future would look like — how he would fit into that long family legacy.

One of the results of the tax bill passed by Congress in December is that exclusion levels for the federal estate tax have doubled.

In practical terms that means far fewer farmers will be affected by the estate tax in the coming years.

The first step in a family farm succession is the cheapest, easiest and most convenient. And it is often neglected.

While legal issues such as form of ownership and taxes must be addressed when contemplating shifting ownership from one family member to another, communication should be the starting point, lawyers say.

DES MOINES — “If you have no plan, no will, that’s an issue,” Jim Harvey, of Heartland Financial Resource Group in West Des Moines, told a group of farmers on the sidelines of the Iowa Power Farming Show here Jan. 31.

The presentation seemed particularly relevant in an era when half of all active farmers are over age 55. Families and individuals filled the meeting room in hopes of learning more about farm transition planning.

Just as a farmer buys insurance in case of a crop failure, there should be a plan in case of a marriage failure — with the hope that neither has to be used.

No one wants to think about the possibility of divorce, but it happens. It can be particularly devastating if the family farm is lost in the distribution of assets as a result.