MANAGEMENT

The actual transfer of farm ownership as well as the transition of management control to the next family farming generation is often a journey with many emotional struggles and potential conflicts involved.

Baby boomers, millennials, Generation Z’s. As the different generations of consumers coexist, and the population grows, consumer preferences and markets are expanding faster than ever.

Given their rich state history, most Texans think of their home as being open range – meaning animals are allowed to “roam at large.” Said another way, it is a “fence out” state, so landowners must put up sufficient fences if they want to prevent animals from roaming across their land.

In 2018, the USDA reported that since 2013, there has been more than a 50 percent reduction in net farm income.

Recently, I had a conversation with a vegetable farmer from the Upper Midwest. Somehow, we got on the topic of scales, and I explained to him that many cattle producers don’t have a scale. The farmer looked at me in pure shock.

Several years ago, I ran into a much younger friend of mine at a winter trade show and asked him what he’d been up to. “We just got back from skiing,” he said. When I asked where he went, he replied in a nonchalant manner, “The Alps.”