In the next ten years, over 40% of Canadian farms will change hands. With 97% of farms being family-owned and operated, this means a lot of challenging – but necessary – discussions between family members on the future of their farm. But when do you start these discussions? Where do you have these discussions? And how do you approach these discussions? Host Crystal Mackay chats with Maggie Van Camp, Farmer and Founder of Farmers’ Bridge, and Patti Durand, Certified Family Enterprise Advisor, on farm succession planning – the challenges that arise during this process, the importance of doing this big task, and tips on making your farm transition a success. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 02:11 Facts about farming in Canada 02:58 Guest introduction 03:51 Is there a typical Canadian farmer? 06:50 The biggest challenge to succession planning 08:30 Megatrends in Canadian agriculture 09:00 Challenges are also opportunities 10:00 Key principles farmers should be thinking about 12:00 Learn to communicate 12:40 Maggie’s experience 14:25 Building trust 15:15 Different discussions will have different people 17:00 How do you deal with contentious issues? 19:20 Getting third party help 23:26 Things to avoid 25:30 Succession planning - free advice Links: Farmers Bridge: https://loft32.ca/farmersbridge/ Farm Credit Canada: https://www.fcc-fac.ca/ Video: Farm Transition - Turning Roadblocks into Building Blocks (Farm Credit Canada): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7DqUARnwEE Host: Crystal Mackay https://ca.linkedin.com/in/crystal-mackay-683b26a Producers: Meredith Martin https://twitter.com/meredithmartin and Cara Stern https://twitter.com/carastern Production coordinator: Rebecca Babcock https://ca.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-babcock Music: Dustin Stern http://dustinspace.com The Ag Podcast is produced by Generate Canada https://generatecanada.ca/ with support from Co-operators https://www.cooperators.ca/en/insurance/farm and the Smart Prosperity Institute https://institute.smartprosperity.ca/