Family Farm Succession Secrets

The worn leather chair at the kitchen table. The view of fields your great-grandfather first plowed. The knowledge that every fence post, every irrigation line, every acre represents generations of sweat, sacrifice, and love for the land. For farming families, succession isn't just about transferring property—it's about preserving a legacy that defines who you are.

Yet despite the deep emotional ties that bind families to their farmland, studies show that only 30% of family farms successfully transition to the second generation, and a mere 12% make it to the third. The reasons aren't mysterious: inadequate planning, unresolved family conflicts, crushing tax burdens, and the assumption that "we'll figure it out when the time comes."

The time to figure it out is now.

This comprehensive guide walks you through everything you need to know about farm succession planning—from having those first difficult conversations with your family to structuring legal entities that protect your land for generations. Whether you're a parent wondering how to divide assets fairly among children with different interests in farming, or a young farmer hoping to take the reins from aging parents, you'll find practical strategies that honor both the business realities and the emotional complexities of keeping farmland in the family.

At Farmer's Delight, we've spoken with dozens of families who've navigated this journey successfully—and some who learned hard lessons along the way. Their wisdom, combined with expert guidance from agricultural attorneys, financial planners, and family business consultants, forms the foundation of what you're about to read.

Farm succession planning is the comprehensive process of preparing for the transfer of a farming operation from one generation to the next. Unlike simple estate planning—which focuses primarily on distributing assets after death—succession planning addresses the living transition of management, ownership, and operational knowledge while ensuring the farm remains viable and the family relationships stay intact.

Think of it as a three-legged stool. The first leg is management succession: determining who will make day-to-day decisions about planting, harvesting, equipment purchases, and labor. The second leg is ownership succession: deciding how the land, equipment, livestock, and other assets will be legally transferred and to whom. The third leg is estate planning: structuring the transfer to minimize tax burdens and ensure fair treatment of all heirs, whether they're involved in the farm or not.

Remove any leg, and the stool topples.

Farm succession planning typically begins 10 to 15 years before the current operators intend to fully retire—though the earlier you start, the more options you'll have. It involves multiple professionals (attorneys, accountants, financial advisors, and often family counselors), numerous family meetings, and a willingness to confront uncomfortable questions about mortality, fairness, capability, and dreams.

The distinction matters enormously. Families who rely solely on estate planning often find that the next generation inherits land but lacks the knowledge, relationships with suppliers and buyers, or financial resources to actually operate the farm successfully. Meanwhile, siblings who didn't want to farm may feel cheated if they receive unequal shares, leading to lawsuits that force land sales.

True succession planning addresses all of these scenarios before they become crises.

The statistics are sobering. According to the USDA's Agricultural Resource Management Survey, the average age of American farmers is now 57.5 years old, and more than one-third are over 65. Within the next two decades, approximately 400 million acres of U.S. farmland—roughly 40% of all farmland in the country—will change hands. Without proper planning, much of this land will be sold to developers, consolidated into corporate operations, or fractured into parcels too small to farm economically.

But the importance of succession planning extends far beyond national agricultural statistics. For individual families, the stakes are deeply personal.

Preserving Family Wealth

Farmland represents one of the largest concentrations of family wealth in America. A 500-acre Midwest corn and soybean operation might be worth $5 million or more—yet that wealth is almost entirely illiquid. Without planning, estate taxes alone can consume 40% of the farm's value, forcing heirs to sell land just to pay the IRS. Proper succession planning uses tools like installment sales, grantor retained annuity trusts, and conservation easements to transfer wealth while minimizing tax exposure.

Ensuring Business Continuity

Farms are businesses, and businesses require uninterrupted management. What happens if the primary operator suffers a sudden health crisis? Who has authority to sign checks, negotiate with the bank, or make planting decisions? Succession planning establishes clear chains of command and ensures that critical knowledge—from which fields drain poorly to which equipment dealer gives the best service—gets documented and transferred.

Maintaining Family Harmony

Inheritance disputes have torn apart countless families. The child who stayed home to work the farm may resent siblings who left for city careers but expect equal shares. The non-farming spouse may worry about financial security. Parents may struggle to treat children "fairly" when fair doesn't mean equal. Succession planning creates a structured process for addressing these concerns openly, before resentments fester into permanent rifts.

Supporting Sustainable Agriculture

For those of us committed to regenerative farming practices, succession planning takes on additional significance. The soil health you've spent decades building, the pollinator habitats you've established, the watershed protections you've implemented—all of this can be undone in a single season by a new owner focused solely on short-term yields. Planning ensures that your sustainable practices continue.

Creating a comprehensive farm succession plan is a multi-year process that requires patience, professional guidance, and above all, honest communication. Here's a step-by-step framework that has helped hundreds of farming families successfully navigate this transition.

Step 1: Assess Your Current Situation

Before you can plan where you're going, you need to understand where you stand. This assessment phase typically takes two to three months and involves gathering comprehensive information about your operation.

Financial Assessment: - Complete inventory of all assets (land, buildings, equipment, livestock, stored crops, accounts receivable) - Current market valuations for real estate and major equipment - Outstanding debts and obligations - Operating agreements, leases, and contracts - Insurance policies and coverage levels - Historical financial statements (minimum five years)

Operational Assessment: - Documentation of all farming practices and procedures - Key relationships (suppliers, buyers, lenders, landlords) - Labor arrangements and critical employees - Equipment maintenance schedules and replacement timelines - Crop and livestock production records

Family Assessment: - Identification of all potential heirs and their interests - Current involvement of family members in the operation - Skills, capabilities, and limitations of potential successors - Non-farming heirs' expectations and financial needs - Existing family dynamics and potential conflicts

Step 2: Define Your Goals and Values

This step requires deep reflection—ideally with your spouse or partner first, then with the broader family. What do you actually want to achieve? Common goals include:

• Keeping the land in agricultural production
• Ensuring the farm stays in the family name
• Providing fair inheritance to all children
• Achieving financial security in retirement
• Preserving specific farming practices or values
• Protecting the land from development

These goals often conflict. Keeping the farm intact may mean non-farming children receive less. Maximizing retirement income might require selling to the highest bidder. Acknowledging these tensions early allows you to make conscious trade-offs rather than discovering conflicts during a crisis.

Step 3: Hold Family Meetings

The family meeting is where succession planning succeeds or fails. Many families find it helpful to use a professional facilitator—often an agricultural mediator or family business consultant—to guide these conversations.

First Meeting: Information Sharing - Parents share their preliminary goals and values - Each family member expresses their interests and concerns - No decisions are made; the focus is on listening - Establish ground rules for respectful communication

Second Meeting: Option Exploration - Present different succession scenarios - Discuss advantages and disadvantages of each - Identify areas of agreement and disagreement - Assign homework (research, reflection, professional consultations)

Third Meeting and Beyond: Decision Making - Work toward consensus on major decisions - Address conflicts directly with facilitation if needed - Document agreements in writing - Set timelines for implementation

Expect this process to take six months to a year. Rushing leads to resentment and agreements that unravel later.

Step 5: Choose Your Transfer Structure

There's no one-size-fits-all approach to transferring a farm. Common structures include:

Outright Gift or Bequest: Simple but may trigger significant gift or estate taxes. Works best for smaller operations or when using the lifetime gift tax exemption.

Installment Sale: Successor purchases the farm over time, providing retirement income to parents while allowing gradual equity building. Payments can be structured flexibly based on farm income.

Family Limited Partnership (FLP) or LLC: Parents transfer farm assets to an entity, then gradually gift or sell partnership/membership interests to successors. Allows valuation discounts and maintains parental control during transition.

Trusts: Various trust structures (grantor retained annuity trusts, qualified personal residence trusts, charitable remainder trusts) can minimize taxes while achieving specific goals.

Lease-to-Own Arrangements: Successor leases the farm with option to purchase, proving their capability before full ownership transfer.

Conservation Easements: Partnering with land trusts can provide immediate cash, reduce estate values, and permanently protect land from development.

Most successful succession plans combine multiple strategies tailored to the family's specific situation.

Step 6: Develop the Successor

If a family member will take over operations, intentional development is crucial. This isn't just about farming skills—it's about business management, financial literacy, and leadership.

Years 1-3: Foundation - Formal education in agriculture and business - Responsibility for specific enterprises or fields - Introduction to key relationships and professional advisors - Development of record-keeping and planning habits

Years 4-7: Expansion - Increased management responsibility - Involvement in marketing and financial decisions - Mentorship from current operators and outside advisors - Gradual assumption of debt or ownership stake

Years 8-10: Transition - Primary operational decision-making shifts to successor - Senior generation moves to advisory role - Final ownership transfers completed - New generation establishes independent relationships with advisors and business partners

Step 7: Address Non-Farming Heirs

Fairness doesn't always mean equality. Children who've invested years working the farm may deserve different treatment than those who pursued other careers. Yet excluding non-farming children entirely breeds resentment and legal challenges.

Common approaches include:

Life Insurance: Purchasing policies that provide inheritance for non-farming heirs equivalent to the farm's value.

Off-Farm Assets: Directing non-farming children to receive retirement accounts, investments, or other non-agricultural property.

Buy-Out Arrangements: Farming heirs purchase non-farming siblings' shares over time, often at below-market rates to keep the farm viable.

Rental Income: Non-farming heirs receive ongoing income from land rented to farming siblings.

Whatever approach you choose, communicate it clearly and explain your reasoning. Surprises after death create lawsuits.

Step 8: Document Everything

Verbal agreements aren't worth the paper they're not written on. Your succession plan should include:

• Updated wills for all parties
• Trust documents as appropriate
• Operating agreements for any business entities
• Buy-sell agreements
• Employment contracts for family members
• Written summaries of family meeting decisions
• Letters of intent explaining the reasoning behind decisions (invaluable if the plan is ever challenged)

Review and update these documents every three to five years, or whenever there's a significant change in family circumstances, tax law, or farm operations.

After working with hundreds of farming families, agricultural advisors consistently identify the same mistakes that derail succession plans. Learn from others' painful experiences.

Waiting Too Long to Start

The number one mistake is procrastination. Farming families are masters of delayed gratification—you plant seeds knowing you won't harvest for months. But succession planning requires even longer time horizons. Many tax-advantaged transfer strategies need years to implement fully. Sudden death or incapacity with no plan in place can force fire sales of land and equipment.

The fix: Start having conversations now, even if you don't expect to retire for decades. A basic plan that evolves beats no plan at all.

Avoiding Difficult Conversations

Farm families are often better at talking to their livestock than to each other about sensitive topics. But silence creates its own problems: assumptions, resentments, unrealistic expectations. The adult child who assumes they'll inherit the farm may be devastated to learn their sibling was always the parents' intended successor.

The fix: Hire a professional facilitator if direct family conversations feel too charged. Many Extension services offer farm transfer programs that include mediation.

Confusing Fair with Equal

Dividing everything equally among children seems fair—until you realize that splitting a farm into non-viable parcels serves no one. The child who sacrificed higher-paying careers to work alongside their parents has contributed differently than siblings who left. True fairness accounts for these differences.

The fix: Define what fairness means to your family specifically. Equal division of assets is one approach, but equal opportunity or equal respect for different contributions may be more appropriate.

Neglecting Retirement Planning

Many farmers' retirement plan is simply "keep farming until I die." But health issues, burnout, or economic downturns can force earlier retirement than expected. Without income sources independent of the farm, parents may be forced to retain ownership longer than ideal for succession, or sell assets that the next generation needs.

The fix: Build retirement assets outside the farm. Even modest annual contributions to IRAs or investment accounts compound significantly over decades.

Failing to Test the Successor

Love for a child doesn't equal confidence in their business abilities. Handing over a multi-million-dollar operation to someone who's never managed a budget, negotiated a contract, or weathered a crop failure is a recipe for disaster.

The fix: Create structured opportunities for the successor to demonstrate competence. Start with manageable responsibilities and increase gradually. Include objective measures of success and outside mentorship.

Using Generic Legal Documents

Online will templates and generic trusts miss crucial agricultural considerations: the special use valuation for estate tax purposes, the importance of keeping land in qualified use, installment payment options for estate taxes, conservation easement implications. An attorney who doesn't understand these tools will cost your family millions.

The fix: Invest in agricultural legal expertise. The additional cost is trivial compared to the taxes saved and disputes avoided.

Ignoring In-Laws and Spouses

Your child's spouse becomes a significant stakeholder in succession. What happens if they divorce? What if the spouse has different visions for the farm? What about the non-farming child's spouse who expected a larger inheritance? Ignoring these relationships invites conflict.

The fix: Include spouses in family meetings. Consider prenuptial or postnuptial agreements to protect farm assets. Ensure non-farming spouses understand and accept the plan's rationale.

Families who successfully transfer farms across generations share common practices that set them apart. These best practices have emerged from decades of research and real-world experience.

Start with Why

Before diving into legal structures and tax strategies, clarify your fundamental purpose. Why does keeping this land in the family matter? What values do you want to preserve? What legacy do you hope to leave? When difficult decisions arise—and they will—this foundational "why" provides guidance.

Write a family mission statement together. Display it prominently. Refer back to it when conflicts emerge.

Separate Business from Family Relationships

Successful multi-generational farms establish clear boundaries between family dynamics and business operations. Family meetings discuss personal matters; business meetings address operational decisions. Holiday dinners are not the time to debate equipment purchases.

Create formal governance structures: regular business meetings with agendas, clear job descriptions for family employees, performance reviews, and market-rate (or clearly discounted) compensation. These structures feel bureaucratic but prevent the confusion that destroys both businesses and families.

Embrace Outside Perspectives

Family members often can't see their own blind spots. An outside advisory board—even informal—provides invaluable perspective. This might include a retired farmer you respect, a non-family business mentor, or professionals from your financial and legal team.

Meet with your advisors at least annually to review the succession plan's progress and address emerging challenges.

Plan for Multiple Scenarios

What if the intended successor changes their mind? What if they're injured and can't farm? What if they turn out to lack necessary abilities? What if land values crash—or skyrocket? What if a non-farming child faces financial hardship and demands their inheritance early?

Good succession plans include contingencies for realistic adverse scenarios. This isn't pessimism; it's prudent risk management.

Transfer Gradually

The best transitions happen slowly. Gradual transfer of management responsibility lets successors learn while safety nets remain in place. Gradual ownership transfer spreads gift tax exclusions across multiple years and allows adjustments if circumstances change.

Land For Good, a nonprofit focused on farm succession, recommends a minimum seven-year transition timeline, with ten to fifteen years preferred for complex operations.

Document Institutional Knowledge

Every farm has knowledge that exists only in the current operator's head: which fields need extra drainage attention, which equipment dealer offers the best service, which cover crop mixes work best on the back forty, where the property lines actually fall versus where fences suggest they are.

Create systems to capture and transfer this knowledge. Some families use farm journals, others video recordings, others formal mentorship sessions. The method matters less than the commitment to documentation.

Build Financial Buffers

Succession transitions are vulnerable to economic shocks. A drought, market collapse, or equipment failure at the wrong moment can doom even well-planned transfers. Build reserves—both in the farm operation and in the successor's personal finances—to weather unexpected challenges.

Financial advisors typically recommend six to twelve months of operating expenses in reserve, plus adequate insurance coverage for key risks.

Farm succession involves complex legal and financial considerations that require professional guidance. This overview introduces key concepts, but always consult qualified professionals for your specific situation.

Estate and Gift Tax Planning

The federal estate tax exemption currently stands at $13.61 million per person ($27.22 million for married couples), meaning most farms won't face federal estate tax. However, this exemption is scheduled to drop to approximately $7 million in 2026 unless Congress acts. State estate taxes, which can apply at much lower thresholds, may also be relevant.

Key strategies include:

Annual Gift Tax Exclusion: You can gift up to $18,000 per person per year (2024 figure, adjusted annually) without using any lifetime exemption. A farming couple with three children and their spouses can transfer $216,000 annually tax-free.

Special Use Valuation (IRC Section 2032A): Allows qualifying farm real estate to be valued based on agricultural use rather than highest and best use (often development value), potentially reducing the taxable estate by up to $1.31 million.

Installment Payment of Estate Tax (IRC Section 6166): If the farm comprises more than 35% of the estate, heirs can pay estate tax over 14 years at favorable interest rates rather than forcing immediate asset sales.

Conservation Easements: Permanently restricting development rights can reduce estate value while generating immediate income tax deductions through donation to qualified land trusts.

Business Entity Structures

Sole Proprietorship: Simple but offers no liability protection and limited succession options.

General Partnership: Easy to form among family members but all partners are personally liable for partnership debts.

Limited Partnership (LP): General partner manages and is personally liable; limited partners have liability protection but limited control. Useful for separating management from ownership.

Limited Liability Company (LLC): Combines liability protection with flexible management structures. Most modern farm succession plans use LLCs. Operating agreements can specify how membership interests transfer at death or disability.

S Corporation: Offers liability protection and potential self-employment tax savings but has restrictions on ownership structure that can complicate transfers.

C Corporation: Rarely appropriate for farms due to double taxation issues.

Financing the Transition

Unless parents plan to gift the farm entirely, successors need financing to purchase their share. Options include:

Installment Sales: Parents finance the purchase directly, receiving regular payments that provide retirement income. Interest rates can be set at the applicable federal rate (AFR), which is often below market rates.

Bank Financing: Traditional agricultural lenders like Farm Credit Services understand farm cash flows and offer appropriate terms.

FSA Loans: The Farm Service Agency offers direct and guaranteed loans specifically for beginning farmers and family farm transitions, often with more favorable terms than commercial lenders.

USDA Beginning Farmer Programs: Various programs provide down payment assistance, reduced interest rates, and other support for qualified beginning farmers, including those taking over family operations.

Insurance Considerations

Life Insurance: Provides immediate liquidity at death for estate taxes, buyout of non-farming heirs, or equalization among children. Second-to-die policies (paying on the second spouse's death) are often most cost-effective.

Disability Insurance: Farming is physically demanding. A key person's disability can derail succession plans. Disability buyout insurance can fund agreements to purchase a disabled owner's interest.

Property and Liability Insurance: Review coverage during transition. Are new operators covered? Does liability coverage extend to new activities? Are property coverages adequate for current values?

Crop Insurance: Ensure coverage transfers properly to new operators and that the successor understands program requirements.

Legal documents and financial strategies are necessary but not sufficient for successful farm succession. The emotional and relational dimensions often prove more challenging—and more important—than the technical aspects.

The Retiring Generation's Struggles

For farmers who've spent their entire adult lives building an operation, stepping back feels like losing identity. The farm isn't just a business; it's who they are. Common emotional challenges include:

Fear of Irrelevance: What will I do if I'm not farming? Who am I without my work?

Loss of Control: Watching the next generation do things differently—perhaps "wrong"—is painful, even when intellectually you know they need room to grow.

Mortality Confrontation: Succession planning requires acknowledging that you won't farm forever. For some, this feels like planning for death.

Financial Insecurity: After decades of reinvesting in the operation, many farmers have limited retirement assets outside the farm itself.

Addressing these concerns requires patience and empathy from the succeeding generation, and often professional support. Retirement coaches specializing in farm transitions can help seniors find purpose and identity beyond daily operations.

The Succeeding Generation's Challenges

Younger farmers taking over family operations face their own emotional hurdles:

Imposter Syndrome: Can I really do this? Will I measure up to my parents and grandparents?

Frustrated Ambition: Waiting for parents to relinquish control while life passes by. Wanting to implement new ideas but being overruled.

Financial Pressure: Assuming debt or making payments to parents while trying to build a career and perhaps a family.

Family Expectations: Feeling obligated to continue farming when part of them might rather do something else.

The succeeding generation needs opportunities to prove themselves, make mistakes, and develop their own identity as farmers—not just caretakers of their parents' vision.

Sibling Dynamics

Few relationships are as complex as those between adult siblings, especially when millions of dollars in assets hang in the balance. Common tensions include:

The Staying vs. Leaving Divide: The sibling who stayed to farm may resent those who left for "easier" lives. Those who left may feel the farming sibling got preferential treatment and a subsidized living.

Differing Values: One sibling may want to preserve the farm exactly as it is; another may want to sell to developers for maximum profit.

In-Law Influence: Spouses may amplify conflicts or bring their own expectations about inheritance.

Old Wounds: Childhood rivalries and perceived parental favoritism often resurface during inheritance discussions.

Professional mediation can help siblings hear each other and reach agreements that might be impossible in direct conversation.

Strategies for Emotional Success

Communicate Early and Often: Don't wait for a crisis. Regular family meetings normalize difficult conversations.

Acknowledge All Feelings: Every family member's emotions are valid, even when they conflict. Creating space for everyone to be heard reduces resentment.

Use Professional Facilitators: Therapists, mediators, and family business consultants provide neutral ground and communication tools.

Create Gradual Transitions: Abrupt changes are emotionally harder than gradual ones. Build in years for adjustment.

Develop Individual Identities: Both generations benefit when their identities aren't entirely wrapped up in the farm. Encourage outside interests, community involvement, and relationships beyond the family.

Consider Family Therapy: There's no shame in seeking professional help for family dynamics. Many successful farm families credit therapy with saving both their relationships and their farms.

Not every farm has an obvious family successor, and traditional inheritance models don't work for every situation. Innovative approaches are emerging that preserve farmland and support the next generation of farmers, even when conventional succession isn't possible.

Non-Family Succession

When no family members want to—or can—take over the farm, transferring to a non-family successor may be the best option for preserving the land and your legacy.

Incubator Programs: Organizations like SCORE and various state programs match retiring farmers with beginning farmers who want to learn before purchasing. The new farmer works alongside you, eventually taking over operations.

Employee Succession: Long-time farm employees may be ideal successors who understand the operation intimately. Structured buyout agreements can make ownership transfer feasible.

Land Matching Services: Programs like USDA's Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program and state-level initiatives connect farmland owners with qualified new farmers.

Non-family succession requires extra attention to knowledge transfer, since the new operator won't have absorbed decades of observation.

Conservation-Based Transfers

For farmers whose primary goal is preserving land from development, conservation strategies offer powerful options:

Agricultural Conservation Easements: Organizations like the American Farmland Trust work with landowners to permanently protect farmland through easements. The landowner receives payment and often retains the right to continue farming or sell to another farmer.

Land Trust Partnerships: Some land trusts purchase farms outright, then resell to qualified farmers at agricultural (rather than development) values, with permanent easements ensuring agricultural use.

Community Land Trusts: Emerging models separate land ownership from farming operations, with the trust owning land and leasing to farmers on long-term basis.

These approaches may generate less cash than selling to developers but preserve your life's work and support sustainable agriculture.

Cooperative and Shared Ownership Models

Innovative ownership structures can keep farms viable when no single successor can take full ownership:

Worker Cooperatives: Employees collectively own and manage the farm. Successful examples exist in organic and specialty crop operations.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Expansions: Some farms have transitioned to models where community members hold ownership stakes, providing capital and guaranteed markets.

Shared Farming Arrangements: Multiple families or entities share ownership of land and equipment, with each managing specific enterprises.

These models require careful legal structuring but can solve succession challenges that seem impossible under traditional frameworks.

Technology-Enabled Transitions

Modern technology is creating new succession possibilities:

Remote Management: Sensors, automation, and remote monitoring allow closer oversight with less physical presence, enabling gradual transitions where retiring farmers stay involved from a distance.

Knowledge Documentation: Video recording, farm management software, and digital record-keeping make it easier than ever to capture and transfer institutional knowledge.

Online Marketplaces: Platforms connecting buyers and sellers of farmland, including those specifically serving farm succession needs, expand options beyond local markets.

Farm succession planning is one of the most important—and most neglected—responsibilities of agricultural families. The statistics are clear: without intentional planning, most family farms don't survive to the next generation. But with thoughtful preparation, professional guidance, and honest family communication, your land can remain productive and in family hands for generations to come.

The process isn't easy. It requires confronting uncomfortable truths about mortality, capability, and fairness. It demands conversations that farming families often prefer to avoid. It takes years of gradual transition rather than a single dramatic handoff. And it costs money—for attorneys, accountants, facilitators, and insurance.

But the alternative is worse. Without planning, families lose not just their land but often their relationships, torn apart by inheritance disputes that could have been prevented. The soil health you've built over decades gets destroyed by new owners focused on short-term extraction. The community connections your family has cultivated for generations disappear.

Start today. Even if retirement seems distant, schedule a family meeting to begin the conversation. Consult with an agricultural attorney about your options. Work with a financial planner to understand your retirement needs. Take the first steps toward preserving your legacy.

At Farmer's Delight, we believe that the most meaningful legacy isn't just productive soil or profitable operations—it's the knowledge, values, and love of the land passed from one generation to the next. Your farm's story doesn't have to end with you. With proper planning, it can continue for generations, each chapter building on what came before.

The land you steward today can feed your great-grandchildren's families. The sustainable practices you've pioneered can shape how your community farms for decades. The values you've lived—hard work, environmental stewardship, feeding your neighbors—can guide farmers who haven't even been born.

That's a legacy worth planning for.