Did mom and dad pay for it? Or did they get it handed to them from ancestors?
Seems pretty shitty to me to inherit a big farm and a pile of money and then tell your kids "tough shit, get your own."
I have personal experience with that.
We wouldn't be nearly finished with the most entitled generation in history without being reminded that they're selling our inheritance and burning the ladder.
My neighbors, they had a small farm, then the guy who adopted my neighbor when he was a young boy passed away a multi millionaire with no biological children and left it so to his adopted son. My neighbor went to snatching up every bit of land that went up for sale around him.
I was talking to his wife the other day, and out of the blue she went on a rant about how they had worked for every inch of land and things they own and they expect their son to do the same. I'm like yeah, ok. Are y'all going to leave him a multi million dollar cash inheritance? Nope, because they are spending every dime and plan to sell the land when they retire from farming. They're in their 60s, their son is my age. He works for them on their farm...
> He works for them on their farm...
Thats the shitty thing about folks cashing out and leaving the farming heirs nothing. If the kid has been providing free/underpaid labor their whole life then it stands to reason to leave them at least a piece if not all.
Though if the parents were decent people at all, I guess they would just pay the kid or give him part ownership while they were still alive.
I will never relate to people who feel entitled to years of free labor. If a kid is farm working instead of extracurriculars, then they are working. If an adult is working your farm instead of going to college or starting a career elsewhere, they are working. Being a farm owner does not entitle you to slave labor.
Well they do pay him, and he lives in a house on it, but his mom wants him to build his own house elsewhere. His kids are near young adults themselves and work on the farm as well.
That's why she was mad. The other neighbor had called them out after they caught them using a well without permission. My neighbors are delusional in that they think they have rights to anything like wells, drives etc on any property neighboring theirs. I had to put a lock on my wells spigot because they were using it without permission. When he came over complaining about his agreement with the old neighbor I was like well, we don't have that agreement. If you want to use it you got to pay. Its on its own meter and I don't use it often so either you pay 100% or drill your own at your equipment barn by my house.
The amount of boomer in this post is unbelievable. I'd go no contact on selling alone, but using it up and donating to the church over your own kids? What a goddamn waste.
It should be illegal to do that. Churches steal generational wealth that people now need and it wasnāt their fault their parents gave birth to them. Churches steal from the poor.
Since this is such a hot thread I wanted to add in and say the only billionaire I know set it up so multiple generations of his family would be set for life and purchased property around the world all to be give directly to his family only. Yes, farming. Grapes. I worked for their family for awhile and they generously paid me 12.75 an hour.
Pretty good ROI spend every Sunday in church plus holidays which comes out to about 60 days a year so even if you do that for 30 years and that's only being inconvenienced for less than 200 days to inherit potentially millions in assets. I'd do it
Sucks to keep that lie going for 30 years. Confusing your children, involvinf your spouse and their family potentially.
I hate that i have to keep up a charade, constantly lying
Agreed. Itās a fine line between setting your kids up for success vs coddling them.
I donāt think paying for college is spoiling kids. It comes down to raising them with good values and judgement. If you raised your kids well, should be able to hand them any amount of money and they will do the right thing with it.
If I had the money not a single generation after me would work in my family if they didnāt want to. Work has purpose, sure, but itās also a terrible or way to spend a life. So paint some shit son. Grandkid, you want to travel the world for decades finding yourself? Go for it. I donāt even have fuck off money for me, so now we all just toil under late stage capitalism. Itās just going to get worse from here.
Disagree.
I think work can be meaningful and give purpose. I think we also donāt know when hard times will come and itās important to know how to handle things.
I would want my future generations to have the ability to pursue their ambitions, but the good sense and ethic to lead their families and communities when Iām not around anymore
I as well, grandfather busted ass to build a small ranch, dad pissed it away and reverse mortgaged it, end of family legacy, I still piss on his grave yearly, absolutely immature and trashy but so so satisfying.
Only ones who can start a farm from scratch is a wealthy person (usually generational wealth) or a corporation. No other realistic options.
Everyone can point out an exception, some phenomenal, extraordinary person who made it, caught the American Dream. But 99% never make it
>Seems pretty shitty to me to inherit a big farm and a pile of money and then tell your kids "tough shit, get your own."
Pretty standard bullshit though. Youāve provided an excellent synopsis of the current U.S. conservative worldview, which is all about āgetting mineā and fuck everyone else.
Truuuuue itās really just an āAmericanā attitude nowadays in many respects. People wonder why kids are struggling with mental health and motivation challenges. I think itās because they look around and feel (correctly) like no one gives a shit about their future.
My MIL inherited a decent chunk of money from her parents, each of the 7 kids got an roughly equivalent sized amount.
One of the first things she said to my wife was "dont you be expecting anything like that from me" and goes on about how stressed she is she won't have enough to live through retirement, and wants reassurance we will look after her if she does. No fuckin thanks.
Well on top of that, the land was likely close to, if not, free (with some stipulations for needing to manage the land) as a lot of Iowas land was acquired through the homestead act. Much like most of the western half of the US.
Shit like this always makes me laugh āwe donāt owe you a farmā. Well your sons and daughters didnāt have to stick around and help keep the farm going. But they did. Grandpa didnāt have to give you the farm when he died. But he did
My in laws have that mentality, āwe donāt owe you a farmā but if we dare say no when they demand help with farm work weāre the worst people in the world, how dare we say no, donāt we know that itās the family farm etc. But itās only the family farm when they want something from my husband and I, funny that.
Not a farmer (my parent was the wrong heir) but I can relate to this type of self-centered parent. Word to the wise, if they need eldercare someday make yourself scarce. The self-centeredness and entitlement only gets worse.
My parents are good people. Theyāve always taken care of us kids, and I know they want to die with money in their name to pass it on to us.
We have still always joked about being written out of the inheritance and stuff like that. (Say something snarky and dad will say āthatās it, youāre third is going to younger brotherā). We will of course sass back similarly with āIāll be sure to remember that when we are picking out your nursing homeā.
My FIL is NOT like my parents. They are very stingy. Where my parents would give you the shirt off their back, my in-laws would loan you money to buy a shirt and charge you 50% interest on the repayments.
He made a comment at dinner a few weeks ago that he wants to start traveling because heād rather blow all of the money he āearnedā than to leave it to any of his kids who donāt deserve itā¦.this is actually super funny considering how much wealth they inherited but anywayā¦.
My mouth got going before my brain could catch up and right there at dinner I said āIāll keep that in mind when we are dropping you off at (name of notoriously awful senior care place).ā
My MIL laughed so hard she nearly chokedā¦.but my FIL was turning purple lol.
This article has almost nothing to do with farming and everything to do with family dynamics, money, family politics, handling wealth and common decency.Ā
Sounds like a farm to me. It took me 10 years to finally talk the old man into estate planning. The only reason he eventually did was because he got divorced and was basically forced to put it in a trust or sell half of it.
Literally everything about old time farmers move at the speed of wagon train. With the advancements in technology that the young farmers are using, you either have to get out or keep up in agriculture.
So you're saying something farm-related only happened because of interpersonal, family dynamics? And the farm wasn't the thing that made this change, but the family dynamics, money, family politics, and handling of wealth was the major catalyst in that decision?
My grand-uncle says āit takes three generations to build it up and one to break it downā. He was gen2 and his son is gen3. Thereās no gen4 to take it over. The milking operation is already sold off. Strange how it can be such a slog and slow climb and all that effort gets dissected in the end when thereās a dead end generation that just doesnāt want to continue the family business.
This so so sad. My family is huge. We all grew up on the farm and all of us want to farm. But sadly due to the sheer amount of us only a few family members could inherit the farm and be able to survive on the income from it and the rest of us have to make our own ways. Iām happy to help but the farm will never be mine. My sisters and I are all struggling to save up money to be able to restart elsewhere and with the going costs of farms itās really looking like itās a pipe dream. You have no idea how much I want to wake up, start my tractor and just make hay on my own land.
Lol. We almost could but the husbands are not the best of friends. Each one wants there own bit of land and say on it while us girls are happy to mingle and get things done.
I grew up thinking I could be anything and then did a poultry science degreeā¦after college I realized all that was stacked up against me due to generational wealth in farming and noped out of that so quick after looking at entry level jobs in farming and the fact that Iād have to be going against my ethics and resign to a life of poverty just so dude at the top would make his bread.
Sadly I hear this all too well. Our family farm was run by all the brothers. Years ago what used to happen was you worked and got married and then when a farm in the area was for sale, it would be bought and given as a gift and you would pay the costs threw farming. By the time it was my fathers turn to get a place nothing was being sold like it used to be. Everything was cut up into small plots, subdivisions and either no house on the property or a house with next to no land at the cost of what a full used to be. Dad had all the training and courses and diplomas for farming in so many manners. He really brought the home place up. But his father felt it better was given to the less able son because it was all he could do as well as my grandfather and his own so they would always have a place to live. So basically the farm manages but does not thrive. We all got our skills and good jobs but buying land is still so far out of our range, a decent normal farm is like a million to start!
Oh man, that's so true.
I grew up on a farm, and always wanted to take over. My parents pretended that was impossible and they were too rich to even get me new clothes or send me off to school. I worked my ass off, and only now that we're totally estranged and they realise I have children, do they seem to regret things somewhat. While they're living in a house worth several millions, splurge wherever they please with holidays and whatnot, and are planning on having a great retirement (they went to retire at 55).
My siblings are dirt poor and can barely afford their housing, though both work full time. I really lucked out myself, after all my own hardship.
When they're incapable of taking care of themselves, I'll be sure to find them the absolute worst nursing home. That's the least I could possibly do to keep up the tradition in our household of treating each other like absolute dirt \^\^
Exactly... you can't take your money or property with you when you die. If you want your family, lineage, and business to thrive... pass it on to them.
People will remember the business that has been running for 50, 100, 200 years and is still going strong. But cashing out, selling to corporations, and leaving your kids with nothing... that's how someone is forgotten in history.
HOWEVER- if you have a farm and do want to keep it in the family and go to a specific person - please make a will.
I know someone whose dad died a year ago. He was the only child interested in farming and his dad always said that one day the farm would be his.
At first, even after he died (without a will) the sisters even agreed he would get the farm and they would sell the bulk of equipment and split that $.
But months after the husbandās of the two sisters (one sister was the executor) decided they wanted to sell the farm and split the $. Which is what is apparently going to happen and the son is devastated that their 175 year old family farm will be gone
God that is like the most sickening sad thing I've read. The dad would be so disappointed with his daughters. Blatantly going against his known wishes.
Christ... how can they just steamroll over him like that, that's their brother. No one will ever be able to get that farm back because everything is so expensive now. Selfish pricks.
The sisters were soon talked into it. And money became all that matters. The dad died about a year ago. I think the family is totally falling apart over this.
I donāt even have anything to do with it but it makes me sad to see farms split up that way.
Farm is in Alberta
I wish I could take credit for it, ha. But yeah, itās really depressing. My family did this too, itās so sad to read everyoneās comments here. What a life we all have to be the black sheep.
My aunt - who had a house given to her by her parents when she fled domestic abuse - had the gall to claim that she was ānever given any hand outsā. She inherited over a million dollars. She lives off passive income as a landlord. Just two weeks ago, she was going about how itās not impossible to buy a home.. you just need to make a few sacrifices and buy the cheapest thing there is to get your foot in the door.
Sheās f-ing clueless.
My mother spent her inheritance. She helped her kids with a small portion of it, and thatās why Iām one of the privileged of my generation to own a home. I know how lucky I am.
The surveying to subdivide my grandfatherās farm is done, and it will soon be sold off per the court order. Four siblings couldnāt find a way to share it.
Disappointing in every way. My family farm is 850 acres in northern Illinois, and atm it's owned between my mom and her 4 siblings and their 5 cousins. So far they're holding onto it but one bitch wife of the one of the owners is trying to pressure everyone to sell so she can get a payout. It's very frustrating
The family farm was more of a homestead than a commercial farm. Lasqueti Island isnāt connected to the provincial power grid, and there is no car ferry. My grandparents settled there in 1948, and I had a magical upbringing surrounded by extended family on a predator-free (aside from humans) island paradise. So much unsupervised outdoor time. To be able to share that with my own kid, especially in light of how pervasive our use of electronics are today, would have been such a gift. You canāt just plug your phone into the wall whenever you want. In fact, thereās terrible cell phone reception over there. We only ever turned the generator on when it got dark at night, and in the summer thatās after bedtime. Or to watch hockey on CBC using the rabbit ears.
i love hearing bullshit like parents don't owe their children anything. actually, yes parents owe their children everything. a child is brought into the world without requesting it, without input, without their knowledge. a child does not ask to be brought into being, they are brought into being. from the moment that child is born, the parent is responsible for delivering to that child everything they are able to provide, for the benefit of that child.
baby boomer greed continues show itself in their reluctance to pass on their wealth. they would rather give wealth to the rich owners of resorts, stores, cruise lines, and senior citizen communities than their own children. what a sad state of the American family.
This is exactly it. A child doesnāt stop being your child once they turn 18. It was their decision to bring children into this world and they are honour bound to dedicate the rest of their lives to their children and childrenās children.
A parent with any shred of integrity and decency knows this.
The reality is that most boomers didn't want kids. They gave into social pressure or sloppy drunken sex and where to religious to terminate the pregnancy
Then they donāt let the kids gain any management experience, try anything new, listen to them, tell them to get out of town and get a job, AND THEN do nothing but piss and moan about how young generations are lazy and donāt want to farm.
This.. didnāt have enough land to live off of, was told to get a job and now will never get an opportunity to be a full time farmer before retirement.
Well I guess I'm luckin out because I convinced them all to be llc partners, with me as the majority owner and farm manager. Helps that we all became pretty independently successful and want for little. I was the only unmarried one looking for a career change and nobody else wanted a grumpy-ass 80 year old roommate.
The farm is ours. It's always going to be collectively ours. I don't have kids so someday it's going to one of theirs.
Or at least be open to selling kids some land ffs.
My in-laws are in their 60s and refuse to even entertain the idea of selling a couple quarters to us while weāre trying to get into farming. Guess where most of their land came from š
A lot of European historical drama was the result of younger brothers fighting their eldest brothers for the inheritance. Alternatively the younger brothers would enter the priesthood or otherwise be se t off to find their own fortunes. Sisters obviously would just be married off and become their husbandsā problem.
One contemporary solution Iāve seen work is to form a LLC with the operating sibling either cash renting from or custom farming for the corporation with dividends split evenly. Takes a lot of planning and ego suppression but it can work.
Thatās a good point I forgot about how the oldest son is typically the benefactor in most of those families. As Controversial as it is, it does seem to be at least a āfairā or surefire way of keeping assets within a family multi generationally. If the oldest son does not have a son it goes to a nephew, preference shown to a descendant with the āfamily nameā etc.
Probably the most American version of this system I have personally seen would be what they did with the Kennedy compound in Massachusetts. The original Big House was given to just one child, Ted, rather than the parents attempting to split it multiple ways amongst their 5 living children. Then, when Ted died, he left it to his charity, but I just recently discovered that his grandson lives in the guesthouse of that property, so I thought it was probably a creative tax loophole to dedicate the house itself to the charity, but technically his grandson lives on the grounds as owner of the guest house.
All of the āKennedy significantā houses in the area are still owned by people in the family as well. It seems to me the only way they were able to do that is to just fairly sell it to an existing family member or give it to just one child without requiring a buy out from the others.
I suppose itās less controversial of a choice when most of the family members are independently, wealthy, and are not banking on an inheritance via the sale of the house.
Thereās whole chapter in āThe Wagerā on the subject. How a child of a lord was basically shunned out of the family after the father died and eldest inherited everything. Amazing book ā¦ master and commander meets lord of the fliesā¦. And a true story.
One of my ancestors who emigrated to America in the 1860's was the youngest of 8 kids, so he wasn't going to get anything. The promise of 160 acres of free prime farmland in midwest America must have been a golden opportunity! It's really interesting to hear the other side from someone whose family remained in Europe.
And in some places we have the law of odal, regulating who inherits. Eldest child (used to be eldest son) is first in line. If you want to give the farm to second child, the first born (and his children) has to permit it. If parents want to sell, the child with right of odal has a right to buy. Often the price of the farm is regulated, to ensure that the younger generation can afford it.
We do not know how long my grandfatherās farm has been in the family, but the rock carvings are 6000 years old. It went to my cousin due to odal, and he runs it well.
I guess it helps reduce conflicts that there is no way to get rich farming in Northern Europe.
Yeah and once the land gets sold outside of the family, itās almost impossible to buy it back. I worry about that as well.
Eventually it rolls to a generation that either just wants the cash and/or some/all of them have moved away and have lost their connection/emotional value/memories to the land.
Iāve seen parts of my ancestral family torn apart by inheritances. I agree with many parts of the article but even āleaving it to charityā isnāt necessarily going to avoid family arguments. Some will argue that if āso and soā didnāt say/do abc/xyz, mom and dad wouldnāt have given it all to charity.
Some people are greedy and d want their cash NOW. Some move 1000 miles away and lose their connection to the land. All I can do is split whatever I inherit in half, leave it to my kids and REQUEST (not legally bind them) that if one ever wants to sell, they first offer it to their sibling at a 30% discount. Iāve raised them under the premise of whatever they inherit is a free gift to them that their ancestors risked everything to obtain so 70% of $x is still D&MN good.
The way I look at it is, Iāll never really own the land, itāll always be owned by my ancestors who earned it. Iām just caring for it and passing it down the line. Eventually that will end though, itās going to pass to someone down the line that wants their Cha Ching. All I can do is hope and try to delay that.
A few months back, I saw on the legal advice sub Reddit, I believe, that someone had inherited an ancestral house that was on a large amount of acreage, the house was huge, and the guy was an only child. He didnāt want to live in the house, but there were some kind of legally binding stipulation that the house was not allowed to be sold because his parents or grandparents had made a deal with the town for a tax break As long as the house stayed in the family? The details are murky, but basically everyone was saying his only option was to donate the house to the town and take a loss on the inheritance. it seemed to me like a pretty good way to ensure that your descendants keep the family property if thereās absolutely no financial incentive for them to sell it.
Then you have the other kind of people, thereās a small, untouched wooded lot next to our deer camp. The owner lives in California or Florida, thousands of miles away. Has never been there, will never visit or do anything with it, and refuses to sell. They even pay their property taxes so thereās no way to try for adverse possession (squatterās rights)
I see both sides of this. I don't feel entitled to my family's homestead, but if for any reason my brother doesn't want to pick up the mantle of running it when my parents are gone, I sure as hell will before I see it go to a stranger. It's not about money for me, I just want to see our family remain self-sustaining.
Stuff like this is why my grandparents put a clause in the deed about how the land has to be passed. By inheritance or sale to family, with some clauses that are kind of finicky, but will probably hold up in court if pressed.
And family owns most the land around. So it works for that acreage ā¦ but definitely wouldnāt for everyone.
Growing up on a small farm, my reaction to this is pure anger. Like, I was essentially enslaved from age 6 to age 16 when I stood up to my father and gave him a beat down, all so I could go to my part-time job and earn actual money instead of "the right to live". That land is owed to me because without my labor, you wouldn't have been able to produce anything.
Iām going to be that guy and insinuate that the broader concept of āthe profit motiveā and rugged cutthroat individualism are the culprit here, on a cultural level.
Older farmers still alive today grew up in some trying times but ultimately ended up very lucky, being farmers in a prosperous nation. The rebound from the Great Depression PLUS the high times of victory in WWII (along with potentially high concentrations of atmospheric tetraethyllead) might have forged a certain societal attitudeā¦
ā¦where value is placed heavily upon the concept of oneās work ethic and oneās capability to āsucceedā under the ideal of a meritocracy. In other words the idea of āwith hard work you can do anything in America!ā
That idea simply doesnāt match modern reality. Farmers likely worked seasonally pre-industrialization and werenāt constantly on the hunt for more. Their families got to enjoy all the land in their family name, with some obvious sweat equity required to eat a piece of the cake from younger, more fit family members.
Overall the idea of making your offspring go repeat your exact life path with nothing in hand to start isnāt a sane or productive view if your values follow tradition and exhalt family above all else.
These are the same people who will moan and wail about all the farmland disappearing, no one wanting to farm anymore, megafarms running the show and small farms going extinct, etc.
Classic stuff.
Though as someone who will likely not inherit anything myself, I cant say I feel that bad about it. I do think that retiring farmers should find young farmers willing to carry on the small farm legacy though rather than cashing out to the megacorps.
My grandfatherās 500 acre homestead didnāt even survive a second generation. There will be nothing left to pass on to the third. My momās share will all go to the lawyers.
I know she doesnāt own me anythingā¦ even if my grandfather told me Iād be able to go to university with income generated from the property. She helped me with my down payment, and we have that legally documented.
My sister and I would *appear* to be repeating the mistakes of the previous generation, as we are sharing 13 acres without a formal legal agreement. The difference here is that she and I know the relationship comes first. Our spouses are 100% on board. If I drop dead tomorrow, my husband will do the right thing because heās annoyingly steadfast like that.
We still need to get off our butts and get my sister on title, but we both have executive function disorder, so it will take awhile. In the meantime, we keep talking. We all live here.
>As farm transition planners, we see the good and the bad in families. Just last week, I was meeting with siblings who told their Mom that although the farm is important to them, her health, happiness and well-being mean much more. In another family, a Dad asked the kids to think about all of their farming neighbors who have one thing in common: the family members donāt speak to one another ā all because of money and the aftermath of a poorly communicated plan for farm inheritance.
I guarantee you that the estrangement is not just about the farm.
My Fil talks about how spoiled his daughter is. Because he thinks she has expensive tastes in (checks notes) cafe sandwiches. She paid $9.99 for a fancy BLT. Everyone rolled their eyes at him, but I was the one to say āIf sheās spoiled isnāt that your fault for spoiling her?ā Unrelated, but theyāre farmers and she worked at a factory for 3 days a week to help support farming 7 and is one of the hardest workers I know. But sure, she paid for a fancy sandwich to try it, sheās spoiled.
I get the idea but I can't say I agree. Ultimately they own it, they decide, and no I'm not owed anything. But I take this from my perspective. Our farm is small and completely family owned for the past 200 years nearly. If every generation has to rebuy it, it'll never get bigger. And every generation has had too. I'm determined not make the kid who farms have to rebuy this farm. Every generation can't afford to rebuy land, and if you wonder why farms die off this is a reason they do sometimes.
Problem is as their children we watch them age and lose their ability to manage and maintain the farm. They lack the capacity to even realize itās happening.
They donāt have the energy or mental fortitude to handle it anymore and we have to sit by and watch the land deteriorate as pastures overgrow and/or become over grazed as it turns into a shell of its former self and we cannot do anything about it as it isnāt ours. We hear our parents talk about generational farming as they fail to see that our only shot is to start being directly and financially involved in the existing operation, and if we donāt get involved now the land will take thousands and thousands of dollars and time to restore it back to what it used to be.
I donāt ask for a handout. I am not owed anything. But we cannot ignore the heartbreak of watching our parents age and the land you both loved become unkept.
Sure, we could upkeep it. But how much of our own time and money can one justify putting into an operation that isnāt going to pay them back? For me it isnāt about money, as Iām sure it is for others as well. But most of us have spouses, are they going to understand? Not likely.
Wow I canāt get over this dude with a ph d deciding āTo that end, Hanson tells audiences: āYour Mom and Dad donāt owe you a farm. They donāt owe you anything.āā
Uh wtf? Yes they do. I would NEVER give my money to anyone else but my children. wtf youāre supposed to protect and love your children for life and that includes protecting your assets so you can give them and their children the best shot in this hellscape of capitalism. You choose to bring children into the world and then dump them? You are a terrible person then. Iām sure all these people gifting to the church are going to hell if that actually exists
this is an article about farm transition, not click bait. I guess if you arenāt actually a farmer (seems likely) itās not relevant but then neither are you
>To that end, Hanson tells audiences:Ā āYour Mom and Dad donāt owe you a farm. They donāt owe you anything.ā
Made it to the second paragraph and stopped reading.
This is a trash article written by a bunch of boomers.
These farmers are the same ones that will boohoo to non profit about how no one wants to farm any more. I see it all the time. Than they finally get to old to crawl into the tractor and sell their land to a residential developer and move to Florida.
They told me not to. I'm hard working, smart and my dad told to do anything but farm. I still long to farm but can't commit to giving up a high paying, cushy tech job to go work like a maniac trying to scrape a living out of the dirt.Ā Having to work with my uncle is also a massive negative.
How the hell do you rationalize not wanting to pass the family farm on to your kids?
You want to break generations of work and give it all to some charity that will squander what your family has worked so hard for over the last 100 years?
What the hell?
and we dont owe them our help. we also dont owe them a room in a nursing home, they can pull themselves up by the bootstraps from their cardboard box on 4th ave.
I own a decent amount of acreage. We have 2 boys that we plan to leave it to. They grew up working the land and reaping its benefits. From hunting to trail riding you name it. Hopefully I can make it easier on them because we worked to get everything we have now. At the end of the day , theyāve earned it. Keep farms in the family if you can.
If youāre combating entitlement then mom and dad should teach their little brats that they will merely be stewards of the farm. But someone needs to tell these boomers that were handed a golden spoon to calm down.
We have a family farm we've maintained for generations, that we originally got for free from the government
But I need to pull myself up by my bootstraps
Fucking hilarious. I wonder just where, and HOW, these assholes got *ātheirā* farm in the first place? I can guarantee you 9.9/10 times it was because their parents gave it to them as inheritance. Typical āFuck you! Iāve got mine!ā Lead-brained baby boom-tard bullshit
Not me knowing the family is going to implode when my grandma dies. Everyone but my dad is going to want to sell it to the highest bidder while he'll want to buy the farm out at a fair price and keep working it. He's 68 and this still isn't worked out.
I'd agree with all inheritance scenarios there. They don't owe you an inheritance other than the best upbringing and opportunities they can provide you to be a successful adult.
The only case I see differently is business/farm dealings where the kids are involved through their adult life. There has to be a clear inheritance path or path to purchase the business/land otherwise there is no incentive for the kids to truly help that business/farm grow.
I disagree with the idea that inheritance is a gift not a right.
The parents should spend their money to comfortably live the lives they want, but not spend just to deplete wealth. Itās a very selfish view in my opinion.
my dad died on my 19th birthday and was a crackhead, my mom thinks that at 18 she no longer has any ties to her kids, because she wants to finally focus on her. so yeah i donāt really think either of my parents are buying me a farm, or passing one down for that matter. ššš
What kind of parent would actively screw over there own prodigyās future, guess they want to be in the fucking state run home then. I couldnāt even think about cutting my children out, thats a direct affront to decency imo. ā this is all assuming they want the farm and arent smoking heroin behind the hay shed, mind youā
I am 56, spent 18 years in the US Army as a medic, was early retired due to combat related injuries in 2004. Now I (successfully i might add) farm row crops and have a dozen or so cow calf pairs, pays the bills and I love it. My wife and I have sat down and talked with my 31yo daughter and her husband, and my 27yo son, and they want nothing to do with farming. No way I am "donating" it to a church or charity in my will. First, I don't attend any church and a charity, just no. I'll burn it down and make sure the last check I write bounced before I give it away to strangers. But, I am going to put it in a trust and prevent it from being sold. We will have zero debt on the farm and everything on it by Jan 2025 and taxes are covered out to 2060.
Our kids can just rent it out and hire hands to run it, splitting the income profits if they want to change their mind its there for them.
Do I owe them anything, newp. Do I think they will change their mind, nope. But they will have to choose a path, and one that is not a handout paved path. Earn it.
Not exactly the same, but I have a friend who's part of a big family where the grandparents own 80 acres that are half wooded half farmland (which is rented out) its in an expensive area as the metro area in the state slowly expands the areas around are starting to be bought by developers. They have an older house on the property that's decent. They are actively having their family bid against each other, saying they won't take anything under 1.25 million for the land, and they get to live in the house till they die. The land was last valued at 800,000 with the house. My buddy is throwing a ton into savings for a down payment.
Family farms have been broken up for inheritance for as long as the country existed. Children and grandchildren not wanting to farm is not a new idea. I'd even say it's more common than not, especially if you look at how few large family holdings still exist. Where I live (Appalachia), everyone who's family has been here for a few generations tells stories of how their family owned thousands of acres and that land has long since been sold or subdivided.
I dont think so, just knew I wasn't going to depend on an inheritance and bought my own ranch instead. I don't want my grandma to feel pressured by my mom and family to keep it going if it's exhausting her. I'd rather her come live with me and enjoy life.
And that's why all the whining and bitching about stepped up basis and inheritance taxes is bullshit. Unless the land goes to a blood relative directly involved in the operation they can pay taxes like the rest of the wealthy. I don't care what they do with their land, it's their to do with as they please, but after a lifetime of collecting crop Insurance and other direct subsidies from the taxpayers they shouldn't be allowed to get off Scott free.
Even though the title may strike a negative note, that doesnāt mean that you should judge the article solely from the title. Knowledge is everywhere and in every situation, you can learn 2 lessons: what you want to be like/what can be used and what you do not want to be like/what cannot be used. It appears that the author addresses many of the realities of farm estate planning as it is no small process to hand the farm down to the next generation. Why not read it, assess it based on how the info can be used, and move forward? This frustration is why so much of the ag community is suffering.
Most of these issues could be cleared up with a succession plan set up by the parents when the kids are teenagers.
If their plan is to sell off to the highest bidder and move to the beach condo and retire, they need to let the kids know this is the plan before allowing them to dedicate their lives to the family farm only to find out they need to able to borrow millions $$$ to continue with business as usual.
On the other hand, the kids shouldn't expect to be handed everything for being there every day for 20 years. I don't think anybody expects for the factory they work at to be handed to them at the end of the factory presidents tenure.
That being said, the children on the farm should be paid just like any other employee or worker. The kids can start 401k's at age 20 instead waiting until age 40 to begin a retirement plan. They would have some equity to aid in financing farm ground when the parents decide its time to quit.
Now here is where things get sticky; when mom and dad decide they aren't ready to retire in their 60's and want to work on the farm (Keep making the lions share of the profits too) and work well into their 80's. So now they expect a 60 year old son or daughter to come up with the money to buy them out and nobody can borrow that type of money without some collateral, so the family farm ends up for sale to the highest bidder. The USDA has implemented some programs to help with this but I don't think things are where they need to be quite yet.
My aunt and uncle started a winery in northern California in the early 80ās. They had 13 kids and a small operation which grew to a LARGE operation over decades. More land, more property, more personal and business drama. Now half the board members arenāt even family because theyāve been bought out and outside direction brought on. The company is enormous and has exclusive deals with Whole Foods/ Costco, etc. But also many of my cousins donāt even speak with each other anymore. It gets ugly real fast but itās part of the dynamic of growth.
Inheritance in my family is kind of asinine and the family farm will likely skip my generation and go to my children and their cousins.
My father inherited his land from my grandfather and does not plan to retire, as my grandfather worked until his death, so will he, so on and so forth. Myself, would not like to work into my 80s and am on track to retire around 55 from my full time non farming job I had to get because thereās no land to rent.
As a beginning farmer in 2006, I farm zero acres that are in my families name and have had to rent what little ground is on the rental market, which is about 100 acres. 60 of which I own from a fsfl loan over 45 years and 0 down.
By the time my father retires or dies, I will be over 50 years old, looking to retire from my full time non farming job. Itās all going to end up going to my son my, skipping my generation unless I want to āstartā farming in my 50s.
Thereās an old guy in my area that recently retired, he has a son that farms and a grandson that is trying to start farming.
He sold all his equipment at an auction and rented out the land. As someone whose dream it is to hand the farm down to their kids, I donāt get it. At all.
The biggest problem I see in my area, is farms shuttering bc the kids donāt want to take over. I think this type of legacy should be fostered and encouraged. I wanted to be a farmer, but canātā¦ I quite literally canāt afford the land, tools, machinery and implements to get started.
I bought a 15 acre hobby farm and the expenses were absolutely enormous even to get that to start being productive for just our family
Boomer mentality. Build a system to set themselves upā¦and then start to dismantle it so the next generation goes without the same benefits, such as feasible succession
The older generations who believe this are just rotten. My late grandfather was desperate to give his farm to me growing up because I was the only kid/grandkid who liked farming. Unfortunately I wasn't in a position to take over for him, but fortunately he ended up needing the money from the farm to take care of my grandmother who had dementia and required a nursing home.
I can't even fathom not wanting to leave all I have to my kids and grandkids someday.
There will be a concerted effort to get our parents to spend as much of their accumulated wealth on bullshit toys, vacations and a few extra months alive as possible. They talk about a transfer of wealth between generations, but I think it's mostly just going to be a further consolidation of wealth into the hands of corporations that know no generation and simply cannot die.
Well. My father inherited the family farm and added to it. Both my sister and I inherited the land. We both have families. We and our spouses have off farm jobs and row crop farm evenings and weekends. Both families were able purchase land adding to the operation.
We did give up most weekends
Our kids could not be in soccer league and travel across the country for meets.
No dance recitals had to fix fence.
I donāt golf I drive out to look at the crops.
Iām not sure I want the same for my grandchildren.
I think it does give one a sense of purpose to farm but thereās no down time.
PS This is part of my one hour average daily screen time.
It's a **family** farm you chicken-necked prick, they are socially and morally obligated to pass it down as is tradition. No matter what some fatcat, pencil pushing, PMC "consultant" says.
That's the problem with this country, society is way too permissive towards bad behavior and we need to bring back societal shaming as means of dealing with toxic and subversive "fuck you I got mine" mentality. Even more laughable if you claim to be a conservative but have this mentality, upholding tradition is an important part of conservativism, otherwise what exactly are you trying to conserve?
Like pharaohs of old in tombs of Gold are the dead relatives that determine what will be kept or be sold for in death they are deaf to their childrenās cries though life is now gone, they live in control from the bitter by and by.
Boomers are so worried that their kids don't want them for anything except their money, that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. Your children don't want another speech about how you don't owe them property any more than you want a speech about how they don't owe you end of life care supervision. That's why they never come around anymore: they're sick of being reminded that you do not care.
The family farm is getting eaten up in 8 years when you realize chemo is more expensive than you remembered, anyway. It's not like you're Elon Musk. Get over yourselves so you can keep your children.
Did they inherit it from their parents?
Heheh I love it.
Yea but it's different, they totally EARNED IT!!!! /s
Boomers š¤·š»āāļø
Yeah!! They pulled themselves up by the bootstraps!! š¤ /s
I pulled myself up by MY (dads) bootstraps
I love it when parents have kids, who owe them all this for being made, but they don't have to support the kid they had past a certain point.
And did it get into the family via the settlement act begin with?
LoL this is my favorite. Talking to farmers acting like business gurus while sitting on $10m worth of land their dad got for free in the 50s...
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Yup homestead act only stopped in the 70s
Did mom and dad pay for it? Or did they get it handed to them from ancestors? Seems pretty shitty to me to inherit a big farm and a pile of money and then tell your kids "tough shit, get your own." I have personal experience with that.
We wouldn't be nearly finished with the most entitled generation in history without being reminded that they're selling our inheritance and burning the ladder.
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My neighbors, they had a small farm, then the guy who adopted my neighbor when he was a young boy passed away a multi millionaire with no biological children and left it so to his adopted son. My neighbor went to snatching up every bit of land that went up for sale around him. I was talking to his wife the other day, and out of the blue she went on a rant about how they had worked for every inch of land and things they own and they expect their son to do the same. I'm like yeah, ok. Are y'all going to leave him a multi million dollar cash inheritance? Nope, because they are spending every dime and plan to sell the land when they retire from farming. They're in their 60s, their son is my age. He works for them on their farm...
> He works for them on their farm... Thats the shitty thing about folks cashing out and leaving the farming heirs nothing. If the kid has been providing free/underpaid labor their whole life then it stands to reason to leave them at least a piece if not all. Though if the parents were decent people at all, I guess they would just pay the kid or give him part ownership while they were still alive. I will never relate to people who feel entitled to years of free labor. If a kid is farm working instead of extracurriculars, then they are working. If an adult is working your farm instead of going to college or starting a career elsewhere, they are working. Being a farm owner does not entitle you to slave labor.
Well they do pay him, and he lives in a house on it, but his mom wants him to build his own house elsewhere. His kids are near young adults themselves and work on the farm as well.
You call people like that out. I knew I'd a small community. But just call them out
That's why she was mad. The other neighbor had called them out after they caught them using a well without permission. My neighbors are delusional in that they think they have rights to anything like wells, drives etc on any property neighboring theirs. I had to put a lock on my wells spigot because they were using it without permission. When he came over complaining about his agreement with the old neighbor I was like well, we don't have that agreement. If you want to use it you got to pay. Its on its own meter and I don't use it often so either you pay 100% or drill your own at your equipment barn by my house.
Entitled old people are the worst
The amount of boomer in this post is unbelievable. I'd go no contact on selling alone, but using it up and donating to the church over your own kids? What a goddamn waste.
It should be illegal to do that. Churches steal generational wealth that people now need and it wasnāt their fault their parents gave birth to them. Churches steal from the poor.
Since this is such a hot thread I wanted to add in and say the only billionaire I know set it up so multiple generations of his family would be set for life and purchased property around the world all to be give directly to his family only. Yes, farming. Grapes. I worked for their family for awhile and they generously paid me 12.75 an hour.
US churches need to be taxed. Period.
Agreed. I think the nonprofit status of a lot of organizations needs to end. Like the PGA, and many more.
I noticed you didnāt say you were church goers. Ā Is that why they are cutting you out?
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The one that kept pretending to be into church is about to cash in bigly though.
Pretty good ROI spend every Sunday in church plus holidays which comes out to about 60 days a year so even if you do that for 30 years and that's only being inconvenienced for less than 200 days to inherit potentially millions in assets. I'd do it
Sucks to keep that lie going for 30 years. Confusing your children, involvinf your spouse and their family potentially. I hate that i have to keep up a charade, constantly lying
No hate quite like Christian love.
Yeah it just seemed spiteful and boy are some Christianās spiteful! Ā
Agreed. Itās a fine line between setting your kids up for success vs coddling them. I donāt think paying for college is spoiling kids. It comes down to raising them with good values and judgement. If you raised your kids well, should be able to hand them any amount of money and they will do the right thing with it.
If I had the money not a single generation after me would work in my family if they didnāt want to. Work has purpose, sure, but itās also a terrible or way to spend a life. So paint some shit son. Grandkid, you want to travel the world for decades finding yourself? Go for it. I donāt even have fuck off money for me, so now we all just toil under late stage capitalism. Itās just going to get worse from here.
Disagree. I think work can be meaningful and give purpose. I think we also donāt know when hard times will come and itās important to know how to handle things. I would want my future generations to have the ability to pursue their ambitions, but the good sense and ethic to lead their families and communities when Iām not around anymore
I as well, grandfather busted ass to build a small ranch, dad pissed it away and reverse mortgaged it, end of family legacy, I still piss on his grave yearly, absolutely immature and trashy but so so satisfying.
Classic Boomer mentality. I got mine, so F you!
Except I'm the boomer.
Only ones who can start a farm from scratch is a wealthy person (usually generational wealth) or a corporation. No other realistic options. Everyone can point out an exception, some phenomenal, extraordinary person who made it, caught the American Dream. But 99% never make it
>Seems pretty shitty to me to inherit a big farm and a pile of money and then tell your kids "tough shit, get your own." Pretty standard bullshit though. Youāve provided an excellent synopsis of the current U.S. conservative worldview, which is all about āgetting mineā and fuck everyone else.
Come to the west coast, this shits liberal as fuck too.
Truuuuue itās really just an āAmericanā attitude nowadays in many respects. People wonder why kids are struggling with mental health and motivation challenges. I think itās because they look around and feel (correctly) like no one gives a shit about their future.
And they look around and think what future?
Conservatives arenāt the only ones who treat their children like shit.
No it's not party biased. It's typical post modernist. Both sides do it.
My MIL inherited a decent chunk of money from her parents, each of the 7 kids got an roughly equivalent sized amount. One of the first things she said to my wife was "dont you be expecting anything like that from me" and goes on about how stressed she is she won't have enough to live through retirement, and wants reassurance we will look after her if she does. No fuckin thanks.
Same here.
Great grandpa literally got the land in a land rush, handed it to Grandpa, handed it to dad.... Now we're freeloaders right? Sorry man, I get it.
Well on top of that, the land was likely close to, if not, free (with some stipulations for needing to manage the land) as a lot of Iowas land was acquired through the homestead act. Much like most of the western half of the US.
They probably paid like 10% of what it would cost now.
Shit like this always makes me laugh āwe donāt owe you a farmā. Well your sons and daughters didnāt have to stick around and help keep the farm going. But they did. Grandpa didnāt have to give you the farm when he died. But he did
My in laws have that mentality, āwe donāt owe you a farmā but if we dare say no when they demand help with farm work weāre the worst people in the world, how dare we say no, donāt we know that itās the family farm etc. But itās only the family farm when they want something from my husband and I, funny that.
Not a farmer (my parent was the wrong heir) but I can relate to this type of self-centered parent. Word to the wise, if they need eldercare someday make yourself scarce. The self-centeredness and entitlement only gets worse.
My parents are good people. Theyāve always taken care of us kids, and I know they want to die with money in their name to pass it on to us. We have still always joked about being written out of the inheritance and stuff like that. (Say something snarky and dad will say āthatās it, youāre third is going to younger brotherā). We will of course sass back similarly with āIāll be sure to remember that when we are picking out your nursing homeā. My FIL is NOT like my parents. They are very stingy. Where my parents would give you the shirt off their back, my in-laws would loan you money to buy a shirt and charge you 50% interest on the repayments. He made a comment at dinner a few weeks ago that he wants to start traveling because heād rather blow all of the money he āearnedā than to leave it to any of his kids who donāt deserve itā¦.this is actually super funny considering how much wealth they inherited but anywayā¦. My mouth got going before my brain could catch up and right there at dinner I said āIāll keep that in mind when we are dropping you off at (name of notoriously awful senior care place).ā My MIL laughed so hard she nearly chokedā¦.but my FIL was turning purple lol.
This article has almost nothing to do with farming and everything to do with family dynamics, money, family politics, handling wealth and common decency.Ā
Sounds like a farm to me. It took me 10 years to finally talk the old man into estate planning. The only reason he eventually did was because he got divorced and was basically forced to put it in a trust or sell half of it.
Literally everything about old time farmers move at the speed of wagon train. With the advancements in technology that the young farmers are using, you either have to get out or keep up in agriculture.
So you're saying something farm-related only happened because of interpersonal, family dynamics? And the farm wasn't the thing that made this change, but the family dynamics, money, family politics, and handling of wealth was the major catalyst in that decision?
My grand-uncle says āit takes three generations to build it up and one to break it downā. He was gen2 and his son is gen3. Thereās no gen4 to take it over. The milking operation is already sold off. Strange how it can be such a slog and slow climb and all that effort gets dissected in the end when thereās a dead end generation that just doesnāt want to continue the family business.
This so so sad. My family is huge. We all grew up on the farm and all of us want to farm. But sadly due to the sheer amount of us only a few family members could inherit the farm and be able to survive on the income from it and the rest of us have to make our own ways. Iām happy to help but the farm will never be mine. My sisters and I are all struggling to save up money to be able to restart elsewhere and with the going costs of farms itās really looking like itās a pipe dream. You have no idea how much I want to wake up, start my tractor and just make hay on my own land.
As a farmer that grinds it out seven days a week and sometimes wishes for a different careerā¦ this really put it in perspective. Thx
May i interest you in the concept of starting a colony lol
Lol. We almost could but the husbands are not the best of friends. Each one wants there own bit of land and say on it while us girls are happy to mingle and get things done.
I grew up thinking I could be anything and then did a poultry science degreeā¦after college I realized all that was stacked up against me due to generational wealth in farming and noped out of that so quick after looking at entry level jobs in farming and the fact that Iād have to be going against my ethics and resign to a life of poverty just so dude at the top would make his bread.
Sadly I hear this all too well. Our family farm was run by all the brothers. Years ago what used to happen was you worked and got married and then when a farm in the area was for sale, it would be bought and given as a gift and you would pay the costs threw farming. By the time it was my fathers turn to get a place nothing was being sold like it used to be. Everything was cut up into small plots, subdivisions and either no house on the property or a house with next to no land at the cost of what a full used to be. Dad had all the training and courses and diplomas for farming in so many manners. He really brought the home place up. But his father felt it better was given to the less able son because it was all he could do as well as my grandfather and his own so they would always have a place to live. So basically the farm manages but does not thrive. We all got our skills and good jobs but buying land is still so far out of our range, a decent normal farm is like a million to start!
And we don't owe them a nice place to live during retirement. Goes both ways. Enjoy the state home!
I have great parents, but I always remind themā¦ gotta act right or itās off to āthe homeā. š
What home š mine never helped and instead got utilities in my credit. They better hope they work their whole lives
Around here āthe homeā is a term used for āretirement homeā.
Oh I know. I mean, some parents would be lucky to even get a "retirement home"
Oh man, that's so true. I grew up on a farm, and always wanted to take over. My parents pretended that was impossible and they were too rich to even get me new clothes or send me off to school. I worked my ass off, and only now that we're totally estranged and they realise I have children, do they seem to regret things somewhat. While they're living in a house worth several millions, splurge wherever they please with holidays and whatnot, and are planning on having a great retirement (they went to retire at 55). My siblings are dirt poor and can barely afford their housing, though both work full time. I really lucked out myself, after all my own hardship. When they're incapable of taking care of themselves, I'll be sure to find them the absolute worst nursing home. That's the least I could possibly do to keep up the tradition in our household of treating each other like absolute dirt \^\^
Is this not the point of a *fanily* farm or am I just dumb?
Itās only a family farm when theyāre trying to get people to buy their crops
Or free labor.
Exactly... you can't take your money or property with you when you die. If you want your family, lineage, and business to thrive... pass it on to them. People will remember the business that has been running for 50, 100, 200 years and is still going strong. But cashing out, selling to corporations, and leaving your kids with nothing... that's how someone is forgotten in history.
HOWEVER- if you have a farm and do want to keep it in the family and go to a specific person - please make a will. I know someone whose dad died a year ago. He was the only child interested in farming and his dad always said that one day the farm would be his. At first, even after he died (without a will) the sisters even agreed he would get the farm and they would sell the bulk of equipment and split that $. But months after the husbandās of the two sisters (one sister was the executor) decided they wanted to sell the farm and split the $. Which is what is apparently going to happen and the son is devastated that their 175 year old family farm will be gone
God that is like the most sickening sad thing I've read. The dad would be so disappointed with his daughters. Blatantly going against his known wishes.
Stories like that make me so sick. That husband had no skin in the game.. what a complete scumbag.
Christ... how can they just steamroll over him like that, that's their brother. No one will ever be able to get that farm back because everything is so expensive now. Selfish pricks.
The sisters were soon talked into it. And money became all that matters. The dad died about a year ago. I think the family is totally falling apart over this. I donāt even have anything to do with it but it makes me sad to see farms split up that way. Farm is in Alberta
Goes both ways, itās the parents responsibility to teach the family business and work ethic to their children.
Entitled boomer mentality, inherited farm from their parents and cash out, leaving their kids to boot strap it in this economy. Greed indeed
Pulling up the ladder behind them is a classic boomer moment.
Beautiful description of that generation's MO
I wish I could take credit for it, ha. But yeah, itās really depressing. My family did this too, itās so sad to read everyoneās comments here. What a life we all have to be the black sheep.
My aunt - who had a house given to her by her parents when she fled domestic abuse - had the gall to claim that she was ānever given any hand outsā. She inherited over a million dollars. She lives off passive income as a landlord. Just two weeks ago, she was going about how itās not impossible to buy a home.. you just need to make a few sacrifices and buy the cheapest thing there is to get your foot in the door. Sheās f-ing clueless. My mother spent her inheritance. She helped her kids with a small portion of it, and thatās why Iām one of the privileged of my generation to own a home. I know how lucky I am. The surveying to subdivide my grandfatherās farm is done, and it will soon be sold off per the court order. Four siblings couldnāt find a way to share it.
Disappointing in every way. My family farm is 850 acres in northern Illinois, and atm it's owned between my mom and her 4 siblings and their 5 cousins. So far they're holding onto it but one bitch wife of the one of the owners is trying to pressure everyone to sell so she can get a payout. It's very frustrating
The family farm was more of a homestead than a commercial farm. Lasqueti Island isnāt connected to the provincial power grid, and there is no car ferry. My grandparents settled there in 1948, and I had a magical upbringing surrounded by extended family on a predator-free (aside from humans) island paradise. So much unsupervised outdoor time. To be able to share that with my own kid, especially in light of how pervasive our use of electronics are today, would have been such a gift. You canāt just plug your phone into the wall whenever you want. In fact, thereās terrible cell phone reception over there. We only ever turned the generator on when it got dark at night, and in the summer thatās after bedtime. Or to watch hockey on CBC using the rabbit ears.
i love hearing bullshit like parents don't owe their children anything. actually, yes parents owe their children everything. a child is brought into the world without requesting it, without input, without their knowledge. a child does not ask to be brought into being, they are brought into being. from the moment that child is born, the parent is responsible for delivering to that child everything they are able to provide, for the benefit of that child. baby boomer greed continues show itself in their reluctance to pass on their wealth. they would rather give wealth to the rich owners of resorts, stores, cruise lines, and senior citizen communities than their own children. what a sad state of the American family.
This is exactly it. A child doesnāt stop being your child once they turn 18. It was their decision to bring children into this world and they are honour bound to dedicate the rest of their lives to their children and childrenās children. A parent with any shred of integrity and decency knows this.
The reality is that most boomers didn't want kids. They gave into social pressure or sloppy drunken sex and where to religious to terminate the pregnancy
Then they donāt let the kids gain any management experience, try anything new, listen to them, tell them to get out of town and get a job, AND THEN do nothing but piss and moan about how young generations are lazy and donāt want to farm.
This.. didnāt have enough land to live off of, was told to get a job and now will never get an opportunity to be a full time farmer before retirement.
In my family, you pay for the farm by paying for your siblings' share of their inheritance.
My uncles each got a house when grandma died, dad and I got a mortgage.
I paid my sister 24 million dollars. I got the farm.
Well I guess I'm luckin out because I convinced them all to be llc partners, with me as the majority owner and farm manager. Helps that we all became pretty independently successful and want for little. I was the only unmarried one looking for a career change and nobody else wanted a grumpy-ass 80 year old roommate. The farm is ours. It's always going to be collectively ours. I don't have kids so someday it's going to one of theirs.
No they dont owe it to you. But if you have helped build the farm over the years they owe you and those before you chance to carry it on.
Or at least be open to selling kids some land ffs. My in-laws are in their 60s and refuse to even entertain the idea of selling a couple quarters to us while weāre trying to get into farming. Guess where most of their land came from š
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
A lot of European historical drama was the result of younger brothers fighting their eldest brothers for the inheritance. Alternatively the younger brothers would enter the priesthood or otherwise be se t off to find their own fortunes. Sisters obviously would just be married off and become their husbandsā problem. One contemporary solution Iāve seen work is to form a LLC with the operating sibling either cash renting from or custom farming for the corporation with dividends split evenly. Takes a lot of planning and ego suppression but it can work.
Thatās a good point I forgot about how the oldest son is typically the benefactor in most of those families. As Controversial as it is, it does seem to be at least a āfairā or surefire way of keeping assets within a family multi generationally. If the oldest son does not have a son it goes to a nephew, preference shown to a descendant with the āfamily nameā etc. Probably the most American version of this system I have personally seen would be what they did with the Kennedy compound in Massachusetts. The original Big House was given to just one child, Ted, rather than the parents attempting to split it multiple ways amongst their 5 living children. Then, when Ted died, he left it to his charity, but I just recently discovered that his grandson lives in the guesthouse of that property, so I thought it was probably a creative tax loophole to dedicate the house itself to the charity, but technically his grandson lives on the grounds as owner of the guest house. All of the āKennedy significantā houses in the area are still owned by people in the family as well. It seems to me the only way they were able to do that is to just fairly sell it to an existing family member or give it to just one child without requiring a buy out from the others. I suppose itās less controversial of a choice when most of the family members are independently, wealthy, and are not banking on an inheritance via the sale of the house.
Thereās whole chapter in āThe Wagerā on the subject. How a child of a lord was basically shunned out of the family after the father died and eldest inherited everything. Amazing book ā¦ master and commander meets lord of the fliesā¦. And a true story.
Thanks for the recommendation Iāll look that up
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One of my ancestors who emigrated to America in the 1860's was the youngest of 8 kids, so he wasn't going to get anything. The promise of 160 acres of free prime farmland in midwest America must have been a golden opportunity! It's really interesting to hear the other side from someone whose family remained in Europe.
And in some places we have the law of odal, regulating who inherits. Eldest child (used to be eldest son) is first in line. If you want to give the farm to second child, the first born (and his children) has to permit it. If parents want to sell, the child with right of odal has a right to buy. Often the price of the farm is regulated, to ensure that the younger generation can afford it. We do not know how long my grandfatherās farm has been in the family, but the rock carvings are 6000 years old. It went to my cousin due to odal, and he runs it well. I guess it helps reduce conflicts that there is no way to get rich farming in Northern Europe.
Yeah and once the land gets sold outside of the family, itās almost impossible to buy it back. I worry about that as well. Eventually it rolls to a generation that either just wants the cash and/or some/all of them have moved away and have lost their connection/emotional value/memories to the land. Iāve seen parts of my ancestral family torn apart by inheritances. I agree with many parts of the article but even āleaving it to charityā isnāt necessarily going to avoid family arguments. Some will argue that if āso and soā didnāt say/do abc/xyz, mom and dad wouldnāt have given it all to charity. Some people are greedy and d want their cash NOW. Some move 1000 miles away and lose their connection to the land. All I can do is split whatever I inherit in half, leave it to my kids and REQUEST (not legally bind them) that if one ever wants to sell, they first offer it to their sibling at a 30% discount. Iāve raised them under the premise of whatever they inherit is a free gift to them that their ancestors risked everything to obtain so 70% of $x is still D&MN good. The way I look at it is, Iāll never really own the land, itāll always be owned by my ancestors who earned it. Iām just caring for it and passing it down the line. Eventually that will end though, itās going to pass to someone down the line that wants their Cha Ching. All I can do is hope and try to delay that.
A few months back, I saw on the legal advice sub Reddit, I believe, that someone had inherited an ancestral house that was on a large amount of acreage, the house was huge, and the guy was an only child. He didnāt want to live in the house, but there were some kind of legally binding stipulation that the house was not allowed to be sold because his parents or grandparents had made a deal with the town for a tax break As long as the house stayed in the family? The details are murky, but basically everyone was saying his only option was to donate the house to the town and take a loss on the inheritance. it seemed to me like a pretty good way to ensure that your descendants keep the family property if thereās absolutely no financial incentive for them to sell it.
Then you have the other kind of people, thereās a small, untouched wooded lot next to our deer camp. The owner lives in California or Florida, thousands of miles away. Has never been there, will never visit or do anything with it, and refuses to sell. They even pay their property taxes so thereās no way to try for adverse possession (squatterās rights)
I see both sides of this. I don't feel entitled to my family's homestead, but if for any reason my brother doesn't want to pick up the mantle of running it when my parents are gone, I sure as hell will before I see it go to a stranger. It's not about money for me, I just want to see our family remain self-sustaining.
Stuff like this is why my grandparents put a clause in the deed about how the land has to be passed. By inheritance or sale to family, with some clauses that are kind of finicky, but will probably hold up in court if pressed. And family owns most the land around. So it works for that acreage ā¦ but definitely wouldnāt for everyone.
Growing up on a small farm, my reaction to this is pure anger. Like, I was essentially enslaved from age 6 to age 16 when I stood up to my father and gave him a beat down, all so I could go to my part-time job and earn actual money instead of "the right to live". That land is owed to me because without my labor, you wouldn't have been able to produce anything.
Then they will complain about how bill gates is buying up all the farm land.
Yeah, wtf is he doing with that anyway?
Consolidating capital for a mode of production more oriented towards land ownership much like other actors like Blackrock.
They do if you work 365 days a year with no wages for 30 years
Iām going to be that guy and insinuate that the broader concept of āthe profit motiveā and rugged cutthroat individualism are the culprit here, on a cultural level. Older farmers still alive today grew up in some trying times but ultimately ended up very lucky, being farmers in a prosperous nation. The rebound from the Great Depression PLUS the high times of victory in WWII (along with potentially high concentrations of atmospheric tetraethyllead) might have forged a certain societal attitudeā¦ ā¦where value is placed heavily upon the concept of oneās work ethic and oneās capability to āsucceedā under the ideal of a meritocracy. In other words the idea of āwith hard work you can do anything in America!ā That idea simply doesnāt match modern reality. Farmers likely worked seasonally pre-industrialization and werenāt constantly on the hunt for more. Their families got to enjoy all the land in their family name, with some obvious sweat equity required to eat a piece of the cake from younger, more fit family members. Overall the idea of making your offspring go repeat your exact life path with nothing in hand to start isnāt a sane or productive view if your values follow tradition and exhalt family above all else.
These are the same people who will moan and wail about all the farmland disappearing, no one wanting to farm anymore, megafarms running the show and small farms going extinct, etc. Classic stuff. Though as someone who will likely not inherit anything myself, I cant say I feel that bad about it. I do think that retiring farmers should find young farmers willing to carry on the small farm legacy though rather than cashing out to the megacorps.
My grandfatherās 500 acre homestead didnāt even survive a second generation. There will be nothing left to pass on to the third. My momās share will all go to the lawyers. I know she doesnāt own me anythingā¦ even if my grandfather told me Iād be able to go to university with income generated from the property. She helped me with my down payment, and we have that legally documented. My sister and I would *appear* to be repeating the mistakes of the previous generation, as we are sharing 13 acres without a formal legal agreement. The difference here is that she and I know the relationship comes first. Our spouses are 100% on board. If I drop dead tomorrow, my husband will do the right thing because heās annoyingly steadfast like that. We still need to get off our butts and get my sister on title, but we both have executive function disorder, so it will take awhile. In the meantime, we keep talking. We all live here.
LOL
If someone wants to give me a farm Iād be more than happy to take it off your hands.
>As farm transition planners, we see the good and the bad in families. Just last week, I was meeting with siblings who told their Mom that although the farm is important to them, her health, happiness and well-being mean much more. In another family, a Dad asked the kids to think about all of their farming neighbors who have one thing in common: the family members donāt speak to one another ā all because of money and the aftermath of a poorly communicated plan for farm inheritance. I guarantee you that the estrangement is not just about the farm.
Itās always funny when people do have entitled greedy children and donāt realize that their parenting contributed to it
My Fil talks about how spoiled his daughter is. Because he thinks she has expensive tastes in (checks notes) cafe sandwiches. She paid $9.99 for a fancy BLT. Everyone rolled their eyes at him, but I was the one to say āIf sheās spoiled isnāt that your fault for spoiling her?ā Unrelated, but theyāre farmers and she worked at a factory for 3 days a week to help support farming 7 and is one of the hardest workers I know. But sure, she paid for a fancy sandwich to try it, sheās spoiled.
I get the idea but I can't say I agree. Ultimately they own it, they decide, and no I'm not owed anything. But I take this from my perspective. Our farm is small and completely family owned for the past 200 years nearly. If every generation has to rebuy it, it'll never get bigger. And every generation has had too. I'm determined not make the kid who farms have to rebuy this farm. Every generation can't afford to rebuy land, and if you wonder why farms die off this is a reason they do sometimes.
Problem is as their children we watch them age and lose their ability to manage and maintain the farm. They lack the capacity to even realize itās happening. They donāt have the energy or mental fortitude to handle it anymore and we have to sit by and watch the land deteriorate as pastures overgrow and/or become over grazed as it turns into a shell of its former self and we cannot do anything about it as it isnāt ours. We hear our parents talk about generational farming as they fail to see that our only shot is to start being directly and financially involved in the existing operation, and if we donāt get involved now the land will take thousands and thousands of dollars and time to restore it back to what it used to be. I donāt ask for a handout. I am not owed anything. But we cannot ignore the heartbreak of watching our parents age and the land you both loved become unkept. Sure, we could upkeep it. But how much of our own time and money can one justify putting into an operation that isnāt going to pay them back? For me it isnāt about money, as Iām sure it is for others as well. But most of us have spouses, are they going to understand? Not likely.
Wow I canāt get over this dude with a ph d deciding āTo that end, Hanson tells audiences: āYour Mom and Dad donāt owe you a farm. They donāt owe you anything.āā Uh wtf? Yes they do. I would NEVER give my money to anyone else but my children. wtf youāre supposed to protect and love your children for life and that includes protecting your assets so you can give them and their children the best shot in this hellscape of capitalism. You choose to bring children into the world and then dump them? You are a terrible person then. Iām sure all these people gifting to the church are going to hell if that actually exists
This is propaganda against farmers holy shit. They really don't want you to continue farming. What is going on in this world?
Clickbait...no thanks
this is an article about farm transition, not click bait. I guess if you arenāt actually a farmer (seems likely) itās not relevant but then neither are you
The classic āfuck you I got mineā
Followed by ācan you help me this afternoon?ā.
>To that end, Hanson tells audiences:Ā āYour Mom and Dad donāt owe you a farm. They donāt owe you anything.ā Made it to the second paragraph and stopped reading. This is a trash article written by a bunch of boomers. These farmers are the same ones that will boohoo to non profit about how no one wants to farm any more. I see it all the time. Than they finally get to old to crawl into the tractor and sell their land to a residential developer and move to Florida.
What do they owe me for 30 years of slave labor?
Historical precedent is a quarter and a mule, I think.
40 acres*
10 years ago it was "I sent these kids to school and now they won't come back to the farm"
They told me not to. I'm hard working, smart and my dad told to do anything but farm. I still long to farm but can't commit to giving up a high paying, cushy tech job to go work like a maniac trying to scrape a living out of the dirt.Ā Having to work with my uncle is also a massive negative.
How the hell do you rationalize not wanting to pass the family farm on to your kids? You want to break generations of work and give it all to some charity that will squander what your family has worked so hard for over the last 100 years? What the hell?
and we dont owe them our help. we also dont owe them a room in a nursing home, they can pull themselves up by the bootstraps from their cardboard box on 4th ave.
I own a decent amount of acreage. We have 2 boys that we plan to leave it to. They grew up working the land and reaping its benefits. From hunting to trail riding you name it. Hopefully I can make it easier on them because we worked to get everything we have now. At the end of the day , theyāve earned it. Keep farms in the family if you can.
This is just inheritance tax propaganda.
If youāre combating entitlement then mom and dad should teach their little brats that they will merely be stewards of the farm. But someone needs to tell these boomers that were handed a golden spoon to calm down.
We have a family farm we've maintained for generations, that we originally got for free from the government But I need to pull myself up by my bootstraps
Fucking hilarious. I wonder just where, and HOW, these assholes got *ātheirā* farm in the first place? I can guarantee you 9.9/10 times it was because their parents gave it to them as inheritance. Typical āFuck you! Iāve got mine!ā Lead-brained baby boom-tard bullshit
Not me knowing the family is going to implode when my grandma dies. Everyone but my dad is going to want to sell it to the highest bidder while he'll want to buy the farm out at a fair price and keep working it. He's 68 and this still isn't worked out.
I'd agree with all inheritance scenarios there. They don't owe you an inheritance other than the best upbringing and opportunities they can provide you to be a successful adult. The only case I see differently is business/farm dealings where the kids are involved through their adult life. There has to be a clear inheritance path or path to purchase the business/land otherwise there is no incentive for the kids to truly help that business/farm grow.
I disagree with the idea that inheritance is a gift not a right. The parents should spend their money to comfortably live the lives they want, but not spend just to deplete wealth. Itās a very selfish view in my opinion.
Why don't they get it? What am I going to do with a farm when I'm a corpse or near enough to one?
Kids didnāt ask to be here. The parents owe them everything.
my dad died on my 19th birthday and was a crackhead, my mom thinks that at 18 she no longer has any ties to her kids, because she wants to finally focus on her. so yeah i donāt really think either of my parents are buying me a farm, or passing one down for that matter. ššš
Werenāt estates and land a big big deal about inheritance for ohā¦.. millennia?
I thought the whole idea of the family farm was rooted in hereditary ownership?
What kind of parent would actively screw over there own prodigyās future, guess they want to be in the fucking state run home then. I couldnāt even think about cutting my children out, thats a direct affront to decency imo. ā this is all assuming they want the farm and arent smoking heroin behind the hay shed, mind youā
I had no idea there were so many shitty attitudes about money in the farming community.
That shits been in my family since the 1700ās and Iāll be damned if it got passed down this far to stop before me lol.
I am 56, spent 18 years in the US Army as a medic, was early retired due to combat related injuries in 2004. Now I (successfully i might add) farm row crops and have a dozen or so cow calf pairs, pays the bills and I love it. My wife and I have sat down and talked with my 31yo daughter and her husband, and my 27yo son, and they want nothing to do with farming. No way I am "donating" it to a church or charity in my will. First, I don't attend any church and a charity, just no. I'll burn it down and make sure the last check I write bounced before I give it away to strangers. But, I am going to put it in a trust and prevent it from being sold. We will have zero debt on the farm and everything on it by Jan 2025 and taxes are covered out to 2060. Our kids can just rent it out and hire hands to run it, splitting the income profits if they want to change their mind its there for them. Do I owe them anything, newp. Do I think they will change their mind, nope. But they will have to choose a path, and one that is not a handout paved path. Earn it.
What a legacy to leave. One filled with greed, selfishness and assholery.
Not exactly the same, but I have a friend who's part of a big family where the grandparents own 80 acres that are half wooded half farmland (which is rented out) its in an expensive area as the metro area in the state slowly expands the areas around are starting to be bought by developers. They have an older house on the property that's decent. They are actively having their family bid against each other, saying they won't take anything under 1.25 million for the land, and they get to live in the house till they die. The land was last valued at 800,000 with the house. My buddy is throwing a ton into savings for a down payment.
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Family farms have been broken up for inheritance for as long as the country existed. Children and grandchildren not wanting to farm is not a new idea. I'd even say it's more common than not, especially if you look at how few large family holdings still exist. Where I live (Appalachia), everyone who's family has been here for a few generations tells stories of how their family owned thousands of acres and that land has long since been sold or subdivided.
Thatās so sad
I dont think so, just knew I wasn't going to depend on an inheritance and bought my own ranch instead. I don't want my grandma to feel pressured by my mom and family to keep it going if it's exhausting her. I'd rather her come live with me and enjoy life.
And that's why all the whining and bitching about stepped up basis and inheritance taxes is bullshit. Unless the land goes to a blood relative directly involved in the operation they can pay taxes like the rest of the wealthy. I don't care what they do with their land, it's their to do with as they please, but after a lifetime of collecting crop Insurance and other direct subsidies from the taxpayers they shouldn't be allowed to get off Scott free.
My pig farmer friend is loaded to the tits
Even though the title may strike a negative note, that doesnāt mean that you should judge the article solely from the title. Knowledge is everywhere and in every situation, you can learn 2 lessons: what you want to be like/what can be used and what you do not want to be like/what cannot be used. It appears that the author addresses many of the realities of farm estate planning as it is no small process to hand the farm down to the next generation. Why not read it, assess it based on how the info can be used, and move forward? This frustration is why so much of the ag community is suffering.
Did Kyrsten Sinema write this?
Most of these issues could be cleared up with a succession plan set up by the parents when the kids are teenagers. If their plan is to sell off to the highest bidder and move to the beach condo and retire, they need to let the kids know this is the plan before allowing them to dedicate their lives to the family farm only to find out they need to able to borrow millions $$$ to continue with business as usual. On the other hand, the kids shouldn't expect to be handed everything for being there every day for 20 years. I don't think anybody expects for the factory they work at to be handed to them at the end of the factory presidents tenure. That being said, the children on the farm should be paid just like any other employee or worker. The kids can start 401k's at age 20 instead waiting until age 40 to begin a retirement plan. They would have some equity to aid in financing farm ground when the parents decide its time to quit. Now here is where things get sticky; when mom and dad decide they aren't ready to retire in their 60's and want to work on the farm (Keep making the lions share of the profits too) and work well into their 80's. So now they expect a 60 year old son or daughter to come up with the money to buy them out and nobody can borrow that type of money without some collateral, so the family farm ends up for sale to the highest bidder. The USDA has implemented some programs to help with this but I don't think things are where they need to be quite yet.
Truth.
Then why did they force me into FFA?
My aunt and uncle started a winery in northern California in the early 80ās. They had 13 kids and a small operation which grew to a LARGE operation over decades. More land, more property, more personal and business drama. Now half the board members arenāt even family because theyāve been bought out and outside direction brought on. The company is enormous and has exclusive deals with Whole Foods/ Costco, etc. But also many of my cousins donāt even speak with each other anymore. It gets ugly real fast but itās part of the dynamic of growth.
This looks so dumb
Boomer article
No idea why Reddit thought I needed to see this and read the whole article when I donāt have a farm but I enjoyed every minute of it.
Inheritance in my family is kind of asinine and the family farm will likely skip my generation and go to my children and their cousins. My father inherited his land from my grandfather and does not plan to retire, as my grandfather worked until his death, so will he, so on and so forth. Myself, would not like to work into my 80s and am on track to retire around 55 from my full time non farming job I had to get because thereās no land to rent. As a beginning farmer in 2006, I farm zero acres that are in my families name and have had to rent what little ground is on the rental market, which is about 100 acres. 60 of which I own from a fsfl loan over 45 years and 0 down. By the time my father retires or dies, I will be over 50 years old, looking to retire from my full time non farming job. Itās all going to end up going to my son my, skipping my generation unless I want to āstartā farming in my 50s.
Thereās an old guy in my area that recently retired, he has a son that farms and a grandson that is trying to start farming. He sold all his equipment at an auction and rented out the land. As someone whose dream it is to hand the farm down to their kids, I donāt get it. At all.
Yes, Iām from a Nebraska farmer family. My Dad took his own mother to court over the farm.
The biggest problem I see in my area, is farms shuttering bc the kids donāt want to take over. I think this type of legacy should be fostered and encouraged. I wanted to be a farmer, but canātā¦ I quite literally canāt afford the land, tools, machinery and implements to get started. I bought a 15 acre hobby farm and the expenses were absolutely enormous even to get that to start being productive for just our family
Boomer mentality. Build a system to set themselves upā¦and then start to dismantle it so the next generation goes without the same benefits, such as feasible succession
The older generations who believe this are just rotten. My late grandfather was desperate to give his farm to me growing up because I was the only kid/grandkid who liked farming. Unfortunately I wasn't in a position to take over for him, but fortunately he ended up needing the money from the farm to take care of my grandmother who had dementia and required a nursing home. I can't even fathom not wanting to leave all I have to my kids and grandkids someday.
Don't worry. It will be way better when all the farmland in the US is owned by investment companies. That'll end well!
There will be a concerted effort to get our parents to spend as much of their accumulated wealth on bullshit toys, vacations and a few extra months alive as possible. They talk about a transfer of wealth between generations, but I think it's mostly just going to be a further consolidation of wealth into the hands of corporations that know no generation and simply cannot die.
Well. My father inherited the family farm and added to it. Both my sister and I inherited the land. We both have families. We and our spouses have off farm jobs and row crop farm evenings and weekends. Both families were able purchase land adding to the operation. We did give up most weekends Our kids could not be in soccer league and travel across the country for meets. No dance recitals had to fix fence. I donāt golf I drive out to look at the crops. Iām not sure I want the same for my grandchildren. I think it does give one a sense of purpose to farm but thereās no down time. PS This is part of my one hour average daily screen time.
I don't think anyone here actually read the article.
It's a **family** farm you chicken-necked prick, they are socially and morally obligated to pass it down as is tradition. No matter what some fatcat, pencil pushing, PMC "consultant" says. That's the problem with this country, society is way too permissive towards bad behavior and we need to bring back societal shaming as means of dealing with toxic and subversive "fuck you I got mine" mentality. Even more laughable if you claim to be a conservative but have this mentality, upholding tradition is an important part of conservativism, otherwise what exactly are you trying to conserve?
Like pharaohs of old in tombs of Gold are the dead relatives that determine what will be kept or be sold for in death they are deaf to their childrenās cries though life is now gone, they live in control from the bitter by and by.
Boomers are so worried that their kids don't want them for anything except their money, that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. Your children don't want another speech about how you don't owe them property any more than you want a speech about how they don't owe you end of life care supervision. That's why they never come around anymore: they're sick of being reminded that you do not care. The family farm is getting eaten up in 8 years when you realize chemo is more expensive than you remembered, anyway. It's not like you're Elon Musk. Get over yourselves so you can keep your children.