Some Iowa farmers may wonder what’s entailed in passing their ag operations on to the next generation, whether that’s years down the road or sooner, rather than later.
An event tomorrow night in northeast Iowa aims to answer many questions farmers have about the future. Erin Erickson is coordinating the Farm Succession Planning workshop.
“There’s people who maybe one of their kids wants to continue farming, maybe one of their kids doesn’t. How do we handle that?” Erickson says. “Maybe their kids don’t want to pursue farming at all. They’re kind of all over the place.”
She says the event in Peosta is ideal for those who are thinking about handing over the reigns of the family farming operation, and the conversation will be led by Steve Bohr.
“He’s the co-owner and founder of Farm Financial Strategies. He’s been in this business for 30 years. He knows his stuff,” Erickson says. “He’ll go all over the state of Iowa to visit farm families and have that conversation.”
The workshop is being hosted by Women, Land & Legacy of Delaware and Dubuque counties, and Erickson says it’s open to everyone. She says a similar event last month in Dyersville generated a lot of interest.
“We had about 75 or 80 people show up. We had to turn people away, it was so popular, and we had a waiting list of 60 people,” Erickson says. “So now we have a bigger venue that holds more people and we won’t have a cap.”
The event will be held at the Peosta Community Center from 5 to 8 PM on Tuesday, with the program starting around 6. A food truck will be on site.
(By Janelle Tucker, KMCH, Manchester)