When it comes to farm succession, everyone must be happy.
That is the message from Phil Guscott, an industry specialist on succession planning who spoke at a recent exit-entry farming seminar in Oamaru.
Organised by Beef and Lamb New Zealand, in association with Rabobank, the aim was to provide farmers with options when it came to handing on the business and enable them to decide which system for entering or exiting would be best for them.
Mr Guscott, from Wairarapa Property Consultants Ltd, said farmers needed to start planning for succession the day they bought their farm or, at the very least, the day they had a child.
Succession had to be economic for both the retiring generation and the next farming generation and there had to be a plan for non-farming family members.
Ken Ellis, from Rabobank, said the challenge for the farming industry was to retain good younger farming families.
Mr Ellis said the current generation had more debt; people were living longer; there was a greater emphasis on treating siblings more equally; and relationship break-ups were more common.
There were also changes in New Zealand land ownership with more equity partnerships, staged purchases, limited partnerships and corporate ownership/foreign investment.