UNE Business School senior lecturer Dr Lucie Newsome.
FARM succession researchers are urging rural businesses and landholders to contribute to the Farm Transfer Survey before the survey closes on 30 June.
The survey is gathering information about how farming families succeed at business succession, and how they fail, with the aim of increasing the success rate of future intergenerational transfers.
Senior Lecturer at the University of New England’s Business School, and co-designer of the survey, Dr Lucie Newsome, said failure to effectively manage succession can have disastrous consequences – “for the farm business, for farm families, and for rural communities that rely on intergenerational farming families to support physical and social infrastructure.”
“We are still failing too often at succession, which is why we launched the survey.
“We’re gathering first-hand information on why and how the process succeeds or fails, so that we can distil that experience into an up-to-date guide for families facing succession.”
Data assembled from the survey will also be available to consultants and farm groups, to support their efforts to improve succession outcomes.
The UNE said the last national farm succession survey was 20 years ago and Dr Newsome said much has changed in the past two decades, not least that farm values have soared and pushed up the financial stakes of succession.
Dr Newsome said the response to the 2025 Farm Transfer Survey has been strong, but she urged anyone who owned agricultural land to complete the survey.
“That includes families who haven’t embarked on a succession plan, but who will need to do so in the future.
“Everyone who contributes to this survey may be helping a family negotiate their own succession process in the future,” she said.
“If your experience was terrible, let us know why. If your experience was positive, also let us know why.
“Even if you feel you aren’t saying anything that’s new, you are helping us understand how certain patterns can repeat, and how they might be addressed,” Dr Newsome said.
Meridian Agriculture director with a special interest in succession, Dr Mike Stephens, said he had completed the survey and believes it will provide useful information about who makes management and decisions whether alone or together.
“The information on farm size and debt level and any difference in debt level with the various enterprises will also be interesting.
“The section on succession/estate planning will provide pointers for farm families who have the succession journey in front of them,” he said.
“This is: Who initiated the succession discussion and what assistance did the family have?”
Visit the Farm Transfer Survey
Re farm successions… My father died in 2015, we had no succession plan. I didn’t even know if I (an only child) would get any or all of the farm. We had already made alternative plans, but I was lucky enough to be the sole inheritee. From that moment, I began the process of handing it on to my three daughters. Now, in the final year, after freeholding etc, the youngest will get a debt-free property. Although I feel like I’ve never really been able to run the property as my own person, it is mentally rewarding to know my kids don’t have to wait until their late 50s to take over. so, we’ve sort of skipped a generation, but the 6th and 7th are now in control. And that gives me more pleasure than anything else.
There are so many family farms going through what I went through, and it is horrible to hear their stories. Most next generations just want to know where they are going to be in 5, 10, 20 years. But, even those my age (68) and younger still don’t get it, and hold those reigns tight until the end. Youth makes mistakes, yes, but a good mentor helps. Unfortunately, many “senior” farmers don’t want to bring the next generation in to the business, for fear of financial ruin. Well, it will happen someday, so now (or yesterday) is the time to get cracking. My advice to people my age — don’t be so bloody selfish.