Bigger farms, bigger decisions

Succession planning in Australian farming is increasingly being treated as a long-term business decision rather than a single handover moment.

The urgency is sharpened by the sector’s demographics and the scale of wealth tied up in family operations. Data based on the 2021 ABS Census shows young people made up 25 per cent of the agricultural workforce, but just 13 per cent of farmers or farm managers were aged under 35, pointing to a limited pipeline of younger operators to take over.

Humans of Agriculture founder and chief executive Oli Le Lievre said the scale of change in agriculture is also reshaping succession conversations. 

“When I was born in 1992, farmland was worth $450 an acre. Today it’s worth $8,000 an acre,” he said.

That long-term lift in asset values is changing the nature of succession, from a family transition to a high-stakes business decision.

“It’s conversations around identity, family, legacy and fairness,” Le Lievre said.

Merrilong Group Director and farmer Dave Brownhill said modern farming businesses are significantly larger and more valuable than in previous generations. 

“These are significant businesses now… worth a lot more money than what they used to be,” he said.

A process measured in decades

Farmers and advisers say succession planning is increasingly starting earlier and unfolding over longer periods of time.

“We’re now two years into the five-year transition plan,” Brownhill said. 

Wandilla Gippsland Chief Business Officer Glenn Calder said many families still leave succession discussions too late.

“You need to start probably five or 10 years before the succession actually happens,” he said.

One of the biggest changes for Brownhill’s business was separating family and business decision-making.

“We actually spent a couple of years pulling that apart, so the family had a life and the business had its own space,” he said. 

The challenge of fair versus equal

As farms grow in value in the long term, families are also facing more difficult conversations around fairness and ownership.

Calder pointed to the common tension between siblings working on and off the farm.

“The daughter rightly says, ‘I want half of the farm’. The son says, ‘I’ve been working… for the last 20 years’,” he said. 

He said unresolved expectations can become harder to manage over time.

“The concept of fair - if you leave it, it gets worse and worse,” Calder said.

Brownhill said fairness and equality are often confused in succession discussions.

“Fair is actually the easier part. Equal is the problem,” he said. 

Different family members often take on different levels of risk, responsibility and debt, meaning outcomes are not always identical.

A changing role for the next generation

For younger farmers already working in family businesses, succession is increasingly tied to capability building and external experience.

Fysh Cattle Co’s Evangeline Fysh said her family is beginning to plan ahead. 

“Succession is something that we’ll start to look forward to in the next couple of years,” she said.

Learning from other farming families has also shaped those early discussions.

“You don’t know what you don’t know. It’s really important to start having those conversations when you can,” Fysh said.

Lucy Hamblin works with her parents at Strathdale Wagyu across Queensland and the Darling Downs. She said modern farming businesses are becoming more technology-driven and specialised. 

“I feel quite lucky that we’re already using these quite impressive technologies like robotics,” she said.

Hamblin said different family members are also building expertise outside the farm before returning to the business.

“My older sister works in meat sales, so she’ll be very full of knowledge when she comes back,” she said.

CommBank Executive General Manager for Regional and Agribusiness Kylie Allen said many families are increasingly focused on capability before succession. 

“There’s a growing focus on building capability first - and sometimes that looks like encouraging the next generation to consider opportunities to gain experience in adjacent industries before stepping into the family business,” she said.

First-generation farmers face different pressures

For first-generation farmers, succession planning often involves building a business while also thinking about how it may eventually be handed on.

Springhill Beef’s Adam Turner said succession is already becoming a consideration as his business grows. 

“Now that kids are coming on board, what should we be doing now to make that conversation easy down the track?” he said.

Turner said many discussions around succession still focus on retirement rather than growth.

“We’re still trying to grow things,” he said.

Long-term land value growth is also shaping how newer operators think about the future, even as values have moderated more recently in some markets. 

“The viability of getting into farming now is pretty hard when you do the numbers on property,” Turner said.

Earlier conversations becoming more important

Poorly managed succession can have broader impacts beyond individual farms, including consolidation and fewer people in regional communities.

“If we’re not good at succession, we end up with no one,” Brownhill said. 

At the same time, earlier planning and clearer communication are helping some families navigate the process more effectively.

“I think farmers are getting better at communicating and starting those conversations earlier,” he said.

Across the industry, succession is increasingly being treated as a core part of running a modern farming business rather than a conversation left until later.

As Calder put it, “the sooner you start, the better off you are.”