Twenty-five years ago, I would have told you that topics like self confidence and insecurities were a bunch of fluff. However, I’ve been through a lot and can tell you that it is the soft issues that become hard problems in farming.

When someone hears “estate plan” they generally think “will.” However, for today, I want to focus on the other estate documents beyond a will – there are many!

For the next 10 years, 10,000 baby boomers will turn 65 every day, only 27% of farms have identified a successor, 75% of farmers say they will never retire (or they may semiretire) and finally, less than 10% of America’s 91.5 million acres of farmland will transfer ownership in the next five years.

At 26 years old, Lillie Beringer is a full-time, third-generation farmer from Cascade, Iowa, taking over her grandparents’ farm. Though she is one of 26 grandchildren, she is the only one with dreams of keeping the farm going.

Dispute resolution – need help with that? Whether the dispute is with the USDA, a family member or community group, this program was designed to be reasonable, helpful and avoid lawsuits.

Managing the land after the funeral – you have choices to make now.

Many families make the mistake of jumping into succession planning without a plan. They meet with their professionals, have conversations with family and may even get so far as to begin transitioning ownership of assets, but somewhere along the way, momentum gets lost and the plan stalls.

Unfortunately, there is no magic recipe that will guarantee the preservation of your family relationships and the perpetuation of the dairy. There are, however, five key ingredients that if not planned for will almost assuredly lead to blackened heartache, tasteless family dynamics and burned chances of the dairy succeeding generationally.