Farming Focus Podcast: Making succession work for your family business

The second series of Farming Focus looked at the Future of Farming, asking what farmers can do to put themselves and their farms in the best possible place to face what lies ahead. In the second episode, podcast host Peter Green was joined by Nuffield scholar Peter Craven and Devon farmer Richard Darke.

With 97% of businesses run by families, and an alarming number of farmers going out of business, understanding as much about your family as your business is vital for success, Peter Craven says. Yet, so many farming families struggle to communicate about crucial matters such as planning and succession

“We’re spending all day together, working hard alongside each other, often shoulder-to-shoulder, and these are quite difficult conversations to have,” says Peter. “They need honesty, openness and this conversation about the future is something we don’t often have or make the time for.”

Farm Succession Planning: Successfully handing over your farm

Devon farmer Richard Darke’s family has used the experience of previous generations to secure the success they enjoy today, including being named the 2023 South West Family run Farm of the Year 

Now doing farm succession well, Richard talked about the long and sometimes difficult succession path his family followed in the past, largely centred around deciding how to divide the farm and its shareholdings equitably.

He said this experience concentrated their minds on how they’d do succession further down the line. Reflecting on the process, Richard advises:

“It’s a case of starting to talk about it at a very early stage. Even if it’s just a quick, what do you think Dad about such and such? It’s just a quick phrase that might get the conversation going. “And it’s also involving professionals at an early stage to make sure you’re not going down a particular route when it might not be appropriate.”

As well as talking, Peter stresses the need to listen, and to be inclusive of all family members, including those not involved in the day-to-day running of the farm. Also recognising stakeholders come in different forms; it’s not just people with equity, it’s also people with an interest.

Farm Succession Planning: Family, business and ownership

Peter references his Nuffield scholarship report and three overlapping circles of family, business and ownership to consider when looking to understand family farming businesses better. He places emphasis on ownership, which is often overlooked compared to family and business.

“It’s understanding where we are now, where people sit within those circles, but also where they are in the future and how that might work,” he comments. “This deals with lots of things, it’s not just about succession, it’s bringing together a family to help them understand, learn and get along better.”

Take home messages

• Understand different people’s perspectives. It’s not enough to just have a farming business that’s performing well if there are other dynamics at play, with other stakeholders in that business. Realise people have different personalities and different reasons for doing what they do.
• Use empathy to understand communication is critical, no-one likes surprises. Speak with honesty and fairness to build trust.

 Peter’s Top tip

“When making decisions, get everybody to come into the room with two solutions. Immediately, you’ve set the scene that there’s ‘more than one way to skin a cat’, everybody is now of a different mindset, and suddenly there’s more of an open, sharing environment.”

Family charter for farming businesses

In this episode, Peter introduced the concept of a family charter, a tool he discovered on his Nuffield travels and one he considers vital for all farming family businesses. Unique to each family, the family charter is based on some common principles, offering a family ‘roadmap’ and a set of ‘rules’, and above all, it helps make communication more open and effective.

He went on to describe how to create a family charter in our first bonus episode – read all about it here [link to charter article].

Listen to the full episode at Farming Focus also available via Spotify and Apple podcasts.