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Founded in 1909, UFA Co-operative Limited is an Alberta-based agricultural co-operative with more than 120,000 member-owners. UFA’s network comprises more than 114 bulk fuel and Cardlock Petroleum locations, 34 Farm & Ranch Supply stores and a support office in Calgary, AB. Independent Petroleum Agents and over 1,000 UFA employees provide products, services and agricultural solutions to farmers, ranchers, members and commercial customers in Alberta, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan.
It takes a certain kind of ambition to do what farmers do.
Between the hours and the hard labor, to the public scrutiny and bureaucratic maze
running, it's not an easy task.
While the agriculture industry feeds millions quietly tilling and producing behind the
scenes, many forget that our food comes from the hands of real people with real stories.
Join us as we share stories from those with boots on the ground and unearth unique
perspectives on agriculture's biggest conversations.
It's time to grab your shovel and get to work.
I'm Don Schaefer and this is Digging In with UFA.
When we talk about family farms, we're talking about generations of dedication.
Dedication whose tireless efforts shaped the landscape of how and what we eat.
When planning for the future of the family farm and ensuring its legacy, how do we prepare
for the countless unknowns and the inevitable passing of the gate keys?
Today we dig in on family farm dynamics and succession planning.
on the farm, it's difficult to over emphasize the interwoven roots family farms have
throughout ag at large and the communities they serve.
While there's no miraculous way to entirely future proof the legacy and business of family
owned operations, clear communication and established strategy goes a long way.
I'm Maggie Van Camp.
I'm a farmer, I'm CEO of Red Crest Farms.
m
I also am a founder and director of strategic change for a company called Loft 32, which
I'm also an owner of that company.
And my background is really interesting because I have a long time ag journalist career.
I grew up on a farm.
Not that that's a requirement, but I went to the University of Guelph and I was full on
aggy there.
For me, it was a dream to always farm, to be able to farm.
And in fact, I think we looked in every province at farms.
because we wanted to do it so deeply.
So for us, it was about raising our children on the farm.
For me particularly, it was about being productive.
Like you are deeply productive when you're in agriculture.
On our operation, it was more than a poultry operation.
We farmed with my husband's family and they had a fairly significant dairy and cropping
operation in Ontario.
So we worked alongside with them.
So that was always a challenge to sort of balance out.
I actually once calculated how many kilograms of chicken over the 24 years that has gone
through our farm.
And it was a tremendous millions, millions of kilograms of chicken.
And we do it as healthily and with as much care as we can possibly do it.
And we, think we do a really very good job.
It's number one to think about that.
We use biosecurity at all levels.
Even through all of your preparation, hard work and control.
Sometimes the unthinkable happens.
ah I had probably the most extreme challenge that many people could think of.
And for me, it was debilitating.
that was my husband was killed on our farm 11 years ago.
My children and our community of friends, they were so helpful.
Our families, that support group around me picked me up and carried me when I needed it.
When we started farming,
The reason we came back to Ontario was so that we could be with the community that my
husband had grown up in and contributed and keep it alive and well.
And I think we've done our part in that, not only running a business, but also giving
community members, like most farmers.
Life happens, whether you're prepared for it or not.
It happens.
When all the good and bad and indifference and beauty of life lived rolls by, it's
imperative.
to have a plan.
My name is Trevor McLean.
First and foremost, I am a husband and a father.
I am also an advocate, which means I am very passionate about all things agriculture and
agribusiness.
That's where I've spent my life and where my family has been by my side and where I have
made many friends across North America is in agriculture and through agriculture.
I'm the national leader for Transition Smart Services, which means I get to work with
farmers and agribusinesses through their transition planning and succession planning
basically across the country.
So I'm very fortunate to be able to do something that I love every single day.
I am just proud to be one of the many thousands of members, employees that get to carry
that torch for producers and agriculture across Canada.
It is a patchwork.
It is a quilt that is woven together and the fabric that weaves it together is the people
and the stories and the legacies that
have come before many of us.
Just earlier this morning, I was working with a family farm north of Calgary and their
first generation homesteaded there in 1900.
You you look at their quilt of what they've contributed to agriculture and what they've
woven into it and the fabrics and the colours and the stories.
I'm honoured truly to be able to be a part of the agricultural community.
And to be thought of as somebody that is a leader that's helping to carry on the torch and
the legacy that is so deeply woven into who is Canada is truly a gift.
As Maggie said, it is a community of people and they are very honest.
They are ethical people.
They are hardworking and it's not for fame or fortune.
It's an identity.
And when you say you're an agricultural producer, it doesn't matter if you're
raising chickens or corn or beef or potatoes and PEI, you have this very proud statement
that I'm a farmer.
And it's for good reason why more often than not, when they canvas Canadians and say, who
are those most trusted people?
Why do farmers continually rate in the top of that group of most trusted professions?
They are very honest, honorable people.
We raise some of the most nutritious, safest foods being grown anywhere across the world.
We are recognized as one of the safest food producing nations.
And I think going forward, we are going to play an even bigger part in that role, feeding
this growing population.
It deserves to be talked about because agriculture and agri-food have so many
contributions to so many communities coast to coast to coast in Canada.
And we often talk and hear about other industries because they're sexier.
But I will challenge some of that thinking with anybody who wants to have the dialogue
because agriculture, agri-food, the extension thereof and their contributions to
communities across this country is immense.
Couple that with the need for safe, nutritious food for a growing population.
We have a role to play and we should be promoting what we have here in Canada.
What does it take to properly navigate the business side of a multi-generational farm?
When recognizing the ebb and flow of individual futures and personal goals, what
strategies work best in securing the success of succession planning?
I want to quote a report from RBC.
And they looked at the skills that farmers are going to need in the future.
Communication, leadership, financial and technology.
Those were the four.
key skills that farmers are going to need in the future.
So we need to make sure our next generation farmers are prepared and ready to go.
Like off the hop.
We need to be ready to go sooner.
They're taking on a lot more assets.
They're taking a lot more risk on, and we need to get those sort of skill sets up and
running.
There's also the political part of it.
And I just returned from an agriculture tour through Switzerland and Austria.
and was amazed at how political their farmers are.
I was shocked how politically astute their farmers are.
And they have one of the top rates of succession of any countries in the world.
There is no future without obviously strong current leaders.
In order to create those future leaders, you need to start today because there is much to
learn about and within agriculture.
It is multifaceted.
There are multi-dimensions at play.
There's so much interconnectedness and interdependence in agriculture.
And unfortunately in agriculture, unlike other professions, you typically get one time per
year to do what you do to learn the skill, right?
You plant the crop, you harvest the crop, and then you market the crop.
You do that once a year.
Outside of poultry production and hog production, where you get multiple turns per year,
the vast majority of agriculture is one cycle.
So you need time to get those leaders up to speed with all of the dimensions that are
required to manage an operation.
And with, again, the multifaceted risks and changes coming into agriculture and agri-food,
It just means that those young leaders need that time in the mentorship with other leaders
in the industry, not just mom and dad, but they need exposure to other leaders that are in
that space.
I'm learning along the way for sure.
And I thought I knew a lot about this.
I've written and talked about this and I've written scientific papers on it.
And I've been pretty immersed in this topic for a long time and I'm continually learning.
So one thing I would say to everyone out there that's listening is that the misconception
is that it's just gonna magically happen.
I think the misconception of the public is that farmers are not good at communicating,
they're solitary, and suddenly we're moving from a singular decision-making, basically
most farms are there, to moving to multiple decision-makings.
And we're seeing such a huge increase
and farm families' ability to create accountability, creative solutions, working together
to collectively make a strategic decision for the future.
I think it's changing very rapidly.
We're at an interesting time.
I said we're kind of at a demographic crossroad and a technological crossroad at the same
time.
So we're sitting here and the future looks fantastic if we can sort of get through this
period of transition.
There are so many costs associated with taking over a family farm.
Not only do they have massive capital costs like fertilizer, seed, equipment, but now with
the new capital gains tax rate, there's an extra 9 % that the departing farmer is taxed on
the grain.
And the succeeding center daughter has to fund their parents' payout and then have
financing left over to still cover the huge investment.
The misconception that
Maggie touched on it is, you know, that saying, don't worry son or daughter, someday all
of this will be yours.
And it's not simple navigating succession, however you define succession.
Succession could be the opportunity to pass the farm onto a direct descendant.
That is typically what most farms desire.
Unfortunately, or fortunately today, that is not always the case.
Succession may mean
transitioning the business to an employee, transitioning the business to a cousin or a
relative that is not a direct descendant of.
So succession can mean very different things to different people, but the notion that
someday this will all be yours, it isn't that simple.
Again, there are risks, there is much learning to be done in the business and simply.
The idea that mom and dad are just going to walk away and they're going to hand things
over to you.
It's a big misconception.
It's more than a tax plan.
tell all my families, tax is just a single component and an outcome of a properly done
holistic succession plan.
You know, it is part of it.
Don't let the tax tail wag your business dog.
I tell my families that all the time.
It is part of it.
It is a consideration and we live in a world of tax.
So yes, we will consider it.
But first and foremost, look at the other parts of the business.
You don't always have to do what your parents have always done.
There's another misconception just because mom and dad did the farm or the farm was built
this way.
I hope that listeners can agree that the world has changed.
We can't stand by and do what we've always done and expect to get
different or more.
So it's a process, not an outcome for succession.
It's a process.
There's a lot of little kind of mini plans in that.
So before you can get to the succession or the transfer of assets, you got to set up roles
and responsibility and find out who's doing what.
You got to figure out the compensation.
You got to figure out living, like who's going to live where.
I mean, this in your retirement plan.
the retirement plan sort of mirrors all this going on.
So it does take some time.
And if anybody comes away with anything from this podcast is that let's have some patience
and take some time to do this.
I think the future is going to be different for the farmer of tomorrow, but the future is
also going to be very promising because there has been so much change and change can be
positive or change can be negative, right?
Or change can be indifferent.
I'm very excited about what the future looks like because it is going to be different.
But at the same time, I think it's going to be very promising because we're already
starting from a platform.
of we have again, one of the safest food systems anywhere.
We have the infrastructure to support advancement.
have government that is supporting of agriculture in general.
We have some great entrepreneurs that are out there.
I can go on.
It's going to be different, but promising.
That's what I to leave the listeners with.
It's different, except that have an open mind to it, but it's going to be very promising.
I'm really excited about the next generation because with every succession, there's
something called the succession effect.
So next generation brings pretty sharp pencils.
They bring energy.
They bring new ideas and probably some outside of the box traditional thinking because now
we have female farmers more involved in the operations, maybe a little more broadly
educated and
you know, we're connected to the world.
So this sort of sense of that.
The other part is that they bring technology and technological advances are happening very
rapidly.
Well, with this next generation, it's going to happen even more quickly and they
understand it and they can leverage it.
Really exciting, exciting times.
The next succession effect actually showed that farms that even selected a successor were
more profitable.
And that was
Primarily as they're going through and studying this as researchers study this what
they're finding is it's actually the ability to make strategic decisions as a family and
that's the latest and to me that takes some really strong communication and governance
that this next generation can actually bring to the family farms that we are going to see
I think a burst in productivity and new technology and new ways to do
old problems and to solve old problems.
I'm excited about it.
think in 10 years, we're going to have a very different conversation.
When we clearly communicate our intentions and illustrate defined expectations, we build
an agreed upon foundation and strategy for the future.
Imagine hitting the road for an elaborate road trip and not knowing where you're going.
No map, no GPS.
Establishing a framework for your farm's future doesn't just protect your destination, it
provides peace of mind for your journey.
That same RBC report actually came out.
with an estimate that 40 % of farmers are going to retire by 2033.
That was a shocker for me because only 12 % of farms under current statistics have a
written succession plan.
So we have this large gap in planning that people like Trevor, people that I work with on
regular basis at Farmers' Bridge are trying to help farmers get through this in a way that
can leverage the succession effect.
can leverage the future and make farming in Canada a stronghold in communities across
rural Canada.
A year and a half after my husband passed away, and it was a year and a half from hell, I
sat at my desk and I looked at the window and I had interviewed hundreds and hundreds of
farm families and, you know, have this wonderful network of people across Canada.
And we had done succession as a family.
We had done the planning.
We had written and signed shareholders agreement.
And all I could think of was, oh, my God, what would this have been like without this
planning?
So if anyone's out there, please get started.
Get started.
Start having those conversations.
Reach out to your accountants.
Reach out to your financial advisor.
Start building your team so that you can have a multidisciplinary approach and start
working towards succession planning.
agree with Maggie wholeheartedly.
Where to start is it starts with one conversation at a time and it starts with the family
having a conversation.
one-on-one with each other as a group and getting out in the open.
What are you thinking about?
What are your worries?
What's your desires?
What's your thoughts?
Start to document.
It's so important to have the documentation piece as Maggie said, because it's that place
that you can turn to to say, what did we talk about and what did we agree on?
you know, families want that clarity and that's what a documented plan gives people.
It gives them clarity and with clarity comes peace of mind.
So no matter what happens in your life or to somebody else in your circle, you have that
plan, that document to go back to to say, what were we thinking or what did we agree to
when there wasn't emotion at the table?
Because the one thing for certain is when you look at transition where most of the
problems come into succession planning is actually in the family system.
Of the three systems, family, business and ownership, the vast majority of the distraction
will actually come from the family system.
So you get through it by having those conversations one at a time and sit in it and be
okay because those conversations will be the spark to the something new or to that
creativity
to the solution that you all need to be able to have that quote success in succession.
Time is measured in decades and generations to build a family farm to where it is.
You know, I alluded to earlier that I'm fortunate to work with families that came here in
1900 or before 1900 and they're looking at succession.
It's taken decades and generations to build a business.
It takes
time to properly plan for the succession of that business.
And I think for your listeners, investing that time in the resources necessary to have
that successful transition is something that they do.
They owe it to themselves and they owe it to their family and they owe it to the business
to make sure that those resources are committed to seeing it through.
We have to be able to communicate, even if your transition is leaving.
Farming, super important to communicate to your family.
We don't want the family to blow up because they're intricate to the fabric of rural
Canada, maybe to Canada as a whole.
So we want to make sure that if 40 % of farmers are retiring, that they have the
conversations with their families and that they do some planning and take the time to get
it sort of accepted and get buy-in and co-create these plans with their families.
Really important.
We end the show with where we started it and that's weaving of the fabric and of the
stories and the history of agriculture comes together through the co-creation as Maggie
stated, because she's absolutely right, is the collaboration, the co-creation of a plan
where you're going to see success come out and how farmers are going to flourish going
forward and that next generation is going to have the confidence.
and the backing of family that they're set up and things are okay.
It's not going to be easy, but it's going to be okay.
At the end of the day, we look to our resiliency within ourselves and our communities to
make our collective futures as bright as possible.
All it will really take is conversations like these, some vulnerability, and a little
digging.
Thanks to the support of UFA Cooperative, we're able to share stories from those who live
and breathe agriculture.
We'd like to thank our guests for sharing their insight into the future of agriculture and
for being with us today.
For more information and a new episode every month, visit ufa.com.
With listeners like you, we'll continue to dig a little deeper here on Digging In with
UFA.
I'm Don Schaefer.
Thanks for listening.
Another Everything Podcast production.
Visit everythingpodcast.com, a division of Patterson Media.
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The views expressed in this podcast reflect opinions and perspectives from participating
guests and not necessarily those of UFA, UFA Cooperatives membership, elected officials or
stakeholders.