REGINA — Nick Oakley, business development lead with Farm Management Canada, will be hosting a farm transition workshop at Canada’s Farm Show in Regina on March 17.
Agricultural producers today often live and work on the same land generations before them settled. It’s a family business often carrying one name for many decades, yet according to statistics, only 12 per cent of Canadian farmers have a transition plan. Even more staggering is that only a further 13 per cent are working on that plan.
“I wish there was one simple answer or a template — fill this in and here’s your transition plan, and off you go,” says Oakley. “The tricky thing is that every farm situation is unique and different based on different components, and that could be based on ownership structure, based on management and roles and responsibilities, based on family and who’s involved in the farm, and how many potential siblings there are, and if they’re on the farm or off the farm—there’s so many different factors that are at play.”
Oakley will be coming to Regina on March 17 as Farm Management Canada brings an interactive farm succession workshop called Bridging the Gap to the Queensbury Convention Centre. The day-long workshop will feature experts in accounting, finance, and communication that encourage farm families to work together on a plan for ‘what happens next.’
“If you’re not properly preparing the next generation to transition into these roles, you’re doing them a disservice, and you’re doing a disservice to the generations that came before you,” Oakley said. “It’s such an important topic, we’re so glad that that we can come to Regina to do that.”
Bridging the Gap is made possible through partnerships with MNP, AFSC, FCC, Ritchie Bros., and RBC.
“Just to see groups come together for the good of the industry, for the education of the producer is such a wonderful space to be in,” Oakley said. “They see the incredible value in a workshop like this, and to come to the table just to support farmers without looking for a signature on a new loan, or to become a client or whatnot. We believe that if we all contribute to the industry, then farmers are going to be more well-informed. Farm family situations and farm transitions are going to be done a lot smoother and a lot easier, and it’s going to make for a more successful industry where everybody then will benefit from that.”
Don’t wait
The important piece Oakley stressed about having a transition plan is that it be a living, breathing document that can be addressed, looked at, and updated as life situations change.
“It’s something that changes based on additions or subtractions to families or farm businesses and something that I think the biggest thing that we’re trying to push across to people is that you can’t get started planning your farm transition too early, but you definitely can start planning it too late,” he said. “One of the most important things about farm transitions that’s definitely different from most other business transitions is that the farm is so closely linked to the family, and to ensure and preserve harmony in the farm family, it’s really important to be out front of these farm transitions, to be as transparent as you can.”
Communication of what those desires look like in a transition scenario is crucial, ensuring that everyone at least understands what is happening.
“Maybe there are some people who aren’t especially happy with how this is going or how this other thing is happening,” Oakley said. “But if they’re understanding what’s in the plan, I think that’s the best way to at least ensure that down the road, that you can still get together for Thanksgiving dinners, that Christmases aren’t awkward because there’s a big elephant in the room, that people know what’s happening, and can plan their lives around what that might look like.”
Oakley pointed to one example of a family where one member didn’t properly file their will, with the important document only existing on a computer.
“That computer ended up getting run over in the driveway because the one son didn’t like what was on it,” Oakley recalled. “He wasn’t included and he just destroyed it.”
The best case scenario in his experience is to have the family gather and go over a transition plan and have those sometimes difficult conversations.
“It can go wrong in many different ways, but it’s also quite possible, really likely, that it can go really well and really right by taking the appropriate steps, by getting extra help and expertise from professionals when needed, and doing it properly,” Oakley said.
The workshop concludes with a 45-minute question and answer session featuring every presenter from the workshop, allowing the opportunity for different views on the same topic.
“You pose a question to them, and you get three or four of them collaborating on answers, so you get a perspective of a couple different lenders,” Oakley said. “You get a perspective of a farm transition advisor, you get a perspective from a tax advisor, and it’s such an incredibly valuable time to hear from all of them together on your questions.”
He added that even after the Q&A portion has concluded, experts will stick around for one-on-one questions producers may have.
Canada’s Farm Show a perfect opportunity
The Bridging the Gap workshop happens one day before Canada’s Farm Show in Regina on March 17. With this being the first year the show occurs before seeding, timing couldn’t be better to bring a couple hundred producers down to the Queensbury Convention Centre. The upcoming workshop will be one of the largest presentations of the workshop Farm Management Canada has done.
“I am really just excited to be officially at the Farm Show,” Oakley said. “One of the really cool things that they’ve done to encourage people to come both to the show and the event, is to offer a free ticket to the show if you come to the workshop. So everybody coming to the workshop is getting a free ticket into the show the next day, which is an incredible gesture on their part.”
For Canada’s Farm Show, hosting the workshop in conjunction with their event made sense.
“Through a lot of the research that we have been doing with farmers in Saskatchewan, this is a very important topic with many farm families,” said Carla Vipond, Show Director of Canada’s Farm Show. “Certainly, Farm Management Canada is a national leader in bringing these important farm transition planning sessions throughout Canada, and so we thought this was a really great opportunity to do this here in Saskatchewan and, more importantly, in Regina.”
Oakley described how FMC had the Farm Show in mind as an opportunity to present the workshop, and were pleased when CFS reached out to them with an invitation.
“They called us and said, ‘Just join us here, come to the Farm Show’,” Oakley said. “We can host right on-site here, and they’ve been an incredible partner. So thanks to them, we are officially coming to the show.”
This will be the first time in Canada Farm Show’s 40-year history that the event takes place in March, which Vipond credits in most part to changing farming practices keeping producers busy through June.
“March is the perfect time for us to be hosting a farm show because that’s just before they’re getting ready for a very busy growing season,” she said. “This is the opportunity for them to come into Regina, take in an awesome trade show, take in a lot of entertainment, which is what we have planned this year.
Listing some of the event draws around CFS, Vipond noted, the Jelly Roll concert on March 16 at the Brandt Centre, plus the Regina Pats vs Swift Current Broncos game on March 18 at the same venue.
“It’s been an extraordinary learning experience from a show standpoint,” Vipond said of the decision to bump the show up to March, which for 2025, meant a few months less time to prepare. “The response from industry has been extraordinary. Before Christmas, our trade show was actually 90 per cent sold out.”
Partnerships like those with FMS and the addition of new companies taking in their first Farm Show or returning after a hiatus further cement that the March dates were a good decision.
“While our planning cycle was short, the response was fantastic, which made it all worthwhile,” Vipond explained. “There’s actually a lot going on at REAL— we’ve got everything from hockey playoffs to concerts to a farm show. But actually, that’s what’s making it exciting, there’s just a lot to do in addition to taking in a great Farm Show.”
To register for Bridging the Gap, visit fmc-gac.com/btg for more information. Canada’s Farm Show runs from March 18 to 20 this year with the theme “Grow Starts Here.”
