August 6th, 2024
By Megan Faller
American Farmland Trust Releases Bi-Lingual Land Transfer Training Curriculum: A Toolkit to Support Farm and Ranch Transfers
Providing resources to support beginning farmers and ranchers develop strong communication skills, navigate transfer issues, and build and sustain key relationships.
(Washington, D.C. — October 6, 2024) American Farmland Trust released a new resource, available in English and Spanish, that builds the skills and knowledge of beginning farmers and ranchers participating in a transfer. The Transitioning Land to a New Generation: Land Transfer Training curriculum fills a gap to face a pressing need –nearly 300 million acres of American agricultural lands are expected to change hands in the coming decades.
As aging farmers and ranchers retire, the incoming generation is struggling to afford to enter it, putting land at risk of changing to non-farming uses. Few tools exist to help cultivate relationships and plan for conversations involved in a farm or ranch transfer. This new curriculum supports land seekers to learn what they need to know and do what they need to do as transitions occur.
For the retiring generation, a farm transfer means they must consider retirement, end of life care, finances, and family relationships. For those in the incoming generation, individuals may not have family land to inherit, may have complicated relationships to navigate and limited access to funds that can support the financial needs of the retiring farmer or rancher. There is no single solution to a successful transfer. Roadblocks may exist along the way, while the process can take years to complete.
“Time and again we hear – from farmers, ranchers and the service providers that support them – that each transfer situation is different, even more so as fewer transitions happen within a family,” said Erica Goodman, AFT Farms for a New Generation Director. “The Land Transfer Training is designed to meet people where they are and be adaptable while still building off of steps that are universal. It is our hope that people who use these resources will find a more direct pathway to address their unique needs.”
The new Land Transfer Training, developed in partnership with skilled service providers, includes five modules that create an adaptable pathway for farmers, ranchers, and practitioners to work through the diverse and unique steps of a farm or ranch transfer.
It revolves around 10 key steps of a transfer process and the communications skills needed to support the various relationships involved. The curriculum is performance-based, so learners are activated to do something with the knowledge they receive.
Curriculum resources include training plans, storyboards (PowerPoint presentation with detailed notes for use in a classroom or to prepare for one-on-one services), information sheets, worksheets, resource lists, and a final transfer plan to support farmers and ranchers plan their next steps. The curriculum package also includes a training manual for educators and audio case studies of different transfer experiences.
Lesson topics include:
- Getting started with farm or ranch transfer
- Assessing your finances and building your team
- Choosing business and legal tools
- Telling your story to support your vision
- Preparing for negotiation
In addition, all training resources have been translated into Spanish.
“We are excited to have been able to translate the curriculum into Spanish,” said Megan Faller, AFT’s Farms for a New Generation Senior Manager. “It is essential that we create and improve tools that remove language barriers for producers and practitioners. We hope this effort can help bridge language gaps in transfer situations.”
A national cohort of agriculture service providers helped AFT create the curriculum. In addition to providing feedback and piloting the curriculum in their communities, they tested new ideas on how best to approach challenges farmers and ranchers face during transition. As the training rolls out, AFT continues to refine the resources while training and expanding new networks of service providers who can support farm and ranch transition.
Both Spanish and English versions can be found on AFT’s website.
Ensuring our farms and ranches transition to a new generation is crucial for the future of food production in this country. The resources alone are not all AFT offers. We are also available to support transitions tailored to the situation and location. Contact our team of experts at the Farmland Information Center for free technical assistance.
The Transitioning Land to a New Generation: Land Transfer Training was made possible by a Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program grant from the USDA/National Institute of Food and Agriculture (grant #2020-49400-33257), with additional support from Farm Credit Council.
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American Farmland Trust is the only national organization that takes a holistic approach to agriculture, focusing on the land itself, the agricultural practices used on that land, and the farmers and ranchers who do the work. AFT launched the conservation agriculture movement and continues to raise public awareness through our No Farms, No Food message. Since our founding in 1980, AFT has helped permanently protect over 8 million acres of agricultural lands, advanced environmentally-sound farming practices on millions of additional acres and supported thousands of farm families.