UI Extension unites with allies in effort to promote farm succession planning

University of Idaho Extension educator David Callister, Butte County, knows all too well about the risk farming families take when they put off succession planning.

He’d likely be running a Howe farm and ranch today if his own family had undergone the succession classes he now teaches.

Instead, his grandfather died before they could agree upon a plan to keep the farm solvent. Callister returned to the family farm after earning a master’s degree in 1993, but his margins were insufficient to cover rental payments to relatives.

The farm had to be sold.

“If we would have done things differently while Grandpa was still alive, we would have been fine,” Callister said. “It didn’t pass to a third generation, because we didn’t do it right.”

Callister is now among a group of UI Extension educators and local partners in eastern Idaho looking to improve and expand Extension farm succession planning courses. Succession planning training helps farmers begin the process of effectively transitioning their assets to the next generation.

Consequences of not planning

UI Extension is now partnering with the Idaho State Department of Agriculture (ISDA), the Pocatello-based Sagebrush Steppe Land Trust and the Driggs-based Teton Regional Land Trust to promote, fund and host succession planning education.

Land trust leaders view succession planning as an important tool toward their mission of keeping farmland undeveloped and in production, as families that fail to plan often leave their farms vulnerable to development. Idaho lost 2,119 farms — representing 8.5% of all the farms in the state — between 2017 and 2022, according to the most recent Census of Agriculture.

The land trusts have brought substantial financial resources to the partnership. Both land trusts are midway through separate four-year, $100,000 grants from American Farmland Trust to train staff in succession planning and fund regional succession planning efforts.

In addition to supporting the Extension training, Lydia Hanson, staff attorney and conservation project manager with the Teton Valley Regional Land Trust, fields occasional phone calls from area farmers with questions about specific steps in the succession planning process. She often works with farmers who have donated conservation easements to her organization, allowing the farmers to retain ownership of their land and continue producing food while forever relinquishing their development rights.

“We’re new and we wanted to work with people who were established, and we knew Extension had done this before,” Hanson said.

Eric Pankau, stewardship manager with the Sagebrush Steppe Regional Land Trust, took the lead in bringing the parties together after his organization received its grant. Both Pankau and Hanson participate in monthly succession planning trainings with leaders from several other states through American Farmland Trust, in addition to attending a weeklong annual conference. They’re also part of a regional working group covering Idaho, Utah, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado that discusses land-protection strategies and maintains a database of technical information, training opportunities and professional contacts regarding succession planning.

“There’s a recognition that agricultural lands are the only real stronghold for open space and wildlife habitat left on private lands,” Pankau said. “As they’re converted to subdivisions and dense housing, we lose those wildlife resources.”

Conservation easements can help landowners meet their succession planning goals, providing them cash to continue their operations, support their retirement or give to children who aren’t in line to inherit the farm.

“It does potentially allow a landowner to realize equity in the land without selling it,” Pankau said. “It is an opportunity for landowners to get something out of the land today.”

Starting a dialogue

Succession planning classes typically meet weekly over about a month, with homework assignments between sessions. The eastern Idaho team hopes to schedule classes starting in 2026, charging $50 for the first two family members and $25 for each additional participant. Enrollment fees will cover a workbook and dinners.

The course spurs participants to start a family dialogue about the future of the farm, make decisions about what to leave behind, choose who will continue farm operations and prepare to meet with estate lawyers, financial planners and other professionals. Extension has posted a list of fact sheets addressing common succession planning questions on its Idaho AgBiz website.

“Farmers are asset rich and cash poor, so you’ve got a decent-sized estate, but it’s tied up in equipment, land and livestock, and if you must pay inheritance taxes, you are going to have to sell land, equipment or livestock to pay taxes off,” Callister said. “That ends up cash-strapping the next generation, or they end up selling out because that’s all they can do.”

UI Extension’s regional succession planning team also includes educators Shannon Williams, Lemhi County; Joseph Sagers, Jefferson County; Bracken Henderson, Franklin County; Jared Gibbons, Madison County; and Steve Hines, Jerome County. The educators were trained in facilitating succession planning workshops through Utah State University Extension, which used curriculum developed by South Dakota State University Extension.

Extension also offers succession planning in other regions of the state, including northern and southern Idaho, and has experts on staff who specialize in small farms planning. Colby Field, an area Extension educator specializing in risk management, provides statewide support on succession planning and has also been active in the eastern Idaho team’s efforts.

Anna Lickley, agricultural programs manager with ISDA’s Farm and Ranch Center, worked with Extension to create a succession planning packet a few years ago and offers a self-guided succession planning course. Both resources are posted on the center’s website. The center has evolved to host its own succession planning workshops and works individually with farmers and ranchers on succession planning.

“It’s such an important task to preserve our farms and ranches, and I think approaching it from lots of different angles is a worthwhile endeavor,” Lickley said. “Being one of the fastest growing states in the nation puts an incredible responsibility on the landowners in our state to take ownership of what they want the future of the state to look like.”