Through the work of his agriculture consulting business, Dr Michael Stephens has helped countless farmers forge a succession plan in difficult to navigate circumstances.
The Yendon community figure has dedicated much of his career to the puzzle of farm succession, even completing a PhD on the subject in 2020.
Dr Stephens said his research yielded some clarifying numbers on why most farmers do not have a clear succession plan, and why handing down the farm to the next generation so often results in further financial strain.
"A farm business can't renew and build again unless it has got a new group of people who are going to take it over, family succession," Dr Stephens said.
"The reason I did my PhD in succession planning was that I had heard all of this discussion, 'come to a workshop or buy this book and learn how to do succession planning'.
"We hear there are about 130,000 farmers in Australia, there are 50,000 broad-acre farmers.
"The fact is that half the population of businesses are too small to have a viable farm to hand over. Of the others, you think about what are the blocks.
"Increase of land values has made it harder. If I have most of my assets in farming, I want to hand over a viable farm to the farming side of the family, but I also want to treat the non-farming children fairly."
He said there were some key factors which determined the ultimate success of a farm business when passing between generations.
"In our research we looked through a window of 6300 farming businesses. The overwhelming majority of farmers do not have a succession plan, or will not develop a succession plan," Dr Stephens said.
"Of the farms that we have studied in case studies where they will continue within the family, 100 per cent of them handed over a high element of control to the next generation at a young age.
"We overturned the myth 'you have to have scale to have succession'. What we found out was that the reason people built scale was so you could have succession.
"We found in many cases where succession was successful, the next generation said 'don't split it up yet, we will work together'."
Dr Stephens has been appointed a member of the Order of Australia, recognising his contribution to the agriculture industry and the Ballarat community.
Beyond his work in agribusiness, Dr Stephens has worn many hats for volunteer and community organisations, most recently retiring as president of the Ballaarat Mechanics' Institute.
He has also held positions on the board of the Churchill Trust, Yendon Recreation Reserve committee, Southern Australian Livestock Council and Beef Improvement Board, among others.
Dr Stephens said the Order of Australia nomination was less a recognition of his individual work, and more a validation of the worthiness of the causes he had been a part of.
"It is nice to get that recognition. It is very humbling. It is important for the things that I have been involved with. It is as much recognition for what I have been involved in as it is for me," Dr Stephens said.
"What it says is that the industry I have been involved in, and the community I have been involved in, and the organisations, are worthwhile.
"It is as much a recognition of them as it is for the individual."
