Succession planning in families done early benefits wider community, specialist says

Both Mick and Helen Finnegan, former owners of Rossmoyne, Toolong, had that thought while at the Warrnambool June store sale after a fruitful dairy farming career.

"It was very good to us, and I really did love dairy," Mick Finnegan said not too long after one of his last lots of cross-breed cattle were auctioned off at the busy saleyards.

He said that he had already sold most of his dairy at earlier sales, and it was time to finish off what had been run on his property.

"We still have had some of those cross-bred steers and some a few other lesser known breeds that we raised for our final sale here for our farm we operated," he said.

But while his and his wife's time on the farm had finished, there won't be any farm career beginnings for his four daughters.

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While Mr Finnegan was happy that his daughters had successful careers outside of agriculture, there was a slight hope there could be some family continuation for his property.

But it wasn't to be.

"We are just at retirement age now, and our four lovely daughters were just not simply willing to take on the operation," he said.

"They also have partners who have got other interests in life.

"They all have good careers, and I suppose that in their view, farming just wasn't to their fancy too."

For Mr Finnegan, he sees a lack of succession planning could pave the way for corporate dairy farmers only be operating in his region.

"I would like to see family farming coming back in vogue at some point - it depends on farm prices, I suppose.

"We were lucky a local person did buy our farm, who also has property around us, and we are pleased about that because they will look after and maintain it the way we always did."

Succession planning has found itself a significant focus for farmers, so much so that the Victorian Farmers Federation devoted a session to it at their recent Grains and Livestock conference in Ballarat.

Owner and director of succession planning business Proagtive Isobel Knight spoke during the session and said most of the time, transitioning farming businesses is done on the back of the decision-making of so many other generations.

"If I think about succession planning in the context of what it is, it's a piece of what we do in managing businesses," she said in a speech at the conference.

"So if we had a picture of a puzzle up on the wall, succession planning would be one piece of the puzzle and it's about actually preparing our families and preparing our businesses to continue to grow."

She advocated for families to not only begin succession planning early but also to take it seriously as it could cost a lot down the track.

Besides, it could benefit a broader set of people outside the family circle.

"[Farming families] benefit our communities, they provide a fabric for our communities," Ms Knight said.

"Good succession planning and good farm business management practices also sustain the health and well-being of those communities and the people within them."

"The capital that's in our businesses ... also provides an opportunity for many. "