Maybe your partner is your parent, in-law, sibling, cousin or friend. It doesn’t matter. At some point, says advisor Andy Junkin, there is bound to be tension in the relationship. In fact, if you dig into any farm, that kind of tension is something you’re bound to see, which explains why he calls his service www.stubborn.farm.
With luck, Junkin says, it will just be a small irritation, quickly solved. But just as likely is that those small irritations will end up as full-blown dislike.
It’s a scenario that happens all too often when people work together day in and day out, as they do on the family farm. So what can you do about it? How can each partner involved in the family farm become the one that everyone wants to work with?
Read Also
Youth motivated to find answers to today’s agricultural challenges
This is the first in a series of articles exploring the perspectives and experiences of young people who are finding…
[RELATED] Guide Books Review: Bulletproof your Farm
1. Stop blaming
The first thing is to stop blaming each other, Junkin tells CG from his Iowa base. It’s something he’s learned from walking a lot of farm families through this very process.
“Instead of blaming each other, the question has got to be, how can this be an opportunity for me to become a better person?” Junkin says.
Junkin believes that for every challenge people have in their lives there are three potential causes. Either they have an incorrect belief, a character flaw or a skill deficiency.
“Many family farms fail and there are a lot more that are unhappy because the partners have not addressed the challenges of a working partnership,” Junkin says. “They have an incorrect belief they haven’t challenged themselves on. They have a character flaw that they haven’t self-improved or there’s a skill deficiency, but that’s what they need to focus on to improve the probability of the farm partnership being successful.”
[RELATED] Family meetings that work
2. Understand what went before
Inevitably, there are two generations (or more) involved in the farm operation as the transition process evolves, whether the plan is being done intentionally or is simply happening by osmosis. So, another vital step in building better relationships between the generations is for the younger, incoming managers of the future, whether it’s family or not, to understand exactly what made the farm successful to this point.
They may have new or different ideas about the way they want to manage the farm in the future, but the historical context of what has gone before them is vital to truly understand where the outgoing generation is coming from and give a window into the values and qualities they are likely looking for in a successor.
3. Be above average
Junkin also tells farm families that in today’s world, to succeed as a farmer, a person must be an above average manager.
In the past, in order to succeed in farming, he says, a farm only needed to be better than average and keep out of the bottom 10 per cent that are on the banker’s “naughty” list. Now, says Junkin, the path to success means farmers have to be constantly asking themselves how they can get to the top of the list.
A big part of the answer, Junkin says, is not only to get rid of any sense of entitlement, but also to recognize that it exists on both sides.
Also see that building functional, good relationships with each other is what the work of farming is actually all about.
A generation from now, he predicts, only 10 per cent of today’s farms will still be around. “Although economies of scale are a big factor, efficiency and strategic execution is what matters most,” Junkin says. “The farms that will farm successfully 20 years from today will be run by the families that have been the best at turning incorrect beliefs into correct beliefs, and at turning their character flaws from weaknesses into strengths.”
