Dr. Ron Hanson, an agri-business professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a leading speaker on farm succession planning, says he didn’t come to Canada to make friends. The goal of Hanson’s presentation at the Beef Industry Convention was to help save farms and, more importantly, save families. Unfortunately, both are often lost when the farm succession process goes terribly wrong.
Hanson gave two memorable presentations that took an honest and straightforward approach to the family issues and the potential for conflict when passing the farm operation to the next generation. Rather than focusing on taxation or financial issues, Hanson deals with family issues related to farm succession planning.
“It’s the family issues that prove it to be a success or a failure. Once those family fights begin, nothing gets accomplished,” says Hanson. “I have yet to see a family situation that went to court that ever had a positive outcome or result.”
For details on these stories and more, including Michael Levy’s presentation at the Beef Industry Convention on the “diverging economies of Canada and the United States” and an update from Julie Stitt on the new Beef InfoXchange System, click here to view the February 2010 edition of the News Feed.