In this episode of the Progressive Dairy Podcast, host Kimmi Devaney chats with Elaine Froese about how farm families can build a strong foundation for farm transition. Froese has more than 30 years of experience helping farm families through this process and has written articles in almost every issue of Progressive Dairy – Canada for the past 14 years. 

Read Froese’s articles in Progressive Dairy and visit her website.

Episode overview:

• [~1:10] About Froese’s background and her inspiration for helping farm families with transition planning
• [~3:00] When should farm families start discussion farm transition?
• [~4:05] Tips to help farm families communicate better
• [~7:15] Other essential skills for building a strong foundation for farm transition
• [~10:55] Tips to better communicate expectations
• [~13:55] The first step in the farm transition process
• [~16:40] Understanding conflict styles
• [~21:20] What role do nonfarm heirs have in the farm transition conversation?
• [~24:20] How to approach “fair versus equal”
• [~31:00] Tips to get everyone to the table to discuss farm transition
• [~34:45] Considerations when selecting a driver to coordinate the farm transition conversation
• [~38:30] How farm families can better navigate through difficult emotions before and/or during transition conversations
• [~43:50] Nonrelated transition
• [~48:30] The top pitfall Froese sees when working with farm families
• [~49:15] Top three tips for farm transition
• [~53:15] Rapid-fire questions