About the Program

Having intentional conversations around farm succession and developing future plans for the farm provides a better chance of transition success. Cultivating Your Farm’s Future helps farm business members and families through farm succession planning. Even if the owner generation is planning to be a part of the management for 10+ years from now, starting early can help the process go more smoothly. It provides the succession generation time to develop their management skills and provides the farm time to build or increase its financial stability to include another generation.

The program provides an introduction to Cultivating Your Farm’s Future – a workbook for Farm Succession Planning in Wisconsin, developed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension. The workbook is designed to help farm families evaluate their current situation, think about what they want to do, and give them action steps to move forward.  Where are you now, where do you want to be, and how do you get there? The materials are supported through funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institutes of Food and Agriculture.

The program workshop session offers a  format based on short presentations by local/regional professionals which introduce resources and tools for starting or moving ahead with your farm succession plans such as:

• • • Tax implications around farm succession
    • Retirement resources
    • USDA Farm Service Agency loan programs
    • Business plans
    • Estate planning tools – wills and trusts
    • Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (SWOT) analysis

Follow-up meetings will be offered in the host counties and will be based on feedback from the workshop participants. Farms can also request individual meetings with Extension educators and/or specialists or WDATCP’s Farm Center staff.

Contact our Extension Farm Succession team at farms@extension.wisc.edu