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OSU Extension office working
on succession planning
Herald and News 9/2/08
In the fall of 2007, the Oregon State University
Extension Service, working with the Oregon Cattlemen’s
Association, won a competitive grant from the USDA’s Risk
Management Agency for a commodity partnership program
grant.
OSU Extension proposed to do a series of
workshops throughout the state on succession planning, or
plans to pass on farms and ranches to the next
generation.
Bart Eleveld, with OSU Extension Service in
Corvallis, helped develop the
“Family Farm Succession Planning” workshops, which were
hosted twice in five locations — Klamath Falls, Eugene,
Prineville, Burns and Baker City.
The issue of succession planning is an important
one, Eleveld said, because, though there are fewer farms
and ranches, the size of operations has increased from a
generation ago, as has the value.
“In general this issue has not been addressed by
a majority of family farms and ranches,” he said.
“That’s not to say that every one is going to fail, but
certainly the potential is much
higher (without a plan in place).”
Although applications
for a follow-up grants have been unsuccessful, Eleveld
said his office is working on a DVD tutorial, built on
video from the former workshops, and other avenues, such
as making workshop materials available online so the
information is available after the grant money is gone.
Local workshops
Several county extension centers, including the
Klamath Basin Research and Extension Center, have
developed offshoot workshops.
“It’s our view that succession planning is a
dynamic process. It’s not something you do one time and
put in a file and forget about it,” Eleveld said. “It’s
ongoing, needs to be reexamined, reevaluated and sometimes
redone. For any family farm, there are life events that
can change the plan and how it’s going to be done.”
Workshop materials can be found on Oregon State
University’s Web site at, arec.oregonstate.edu/succession.html.
Planning in Southern Oregon
Oregon State University’s Klamath Basin Research
and Extension Center has developed its own version of the
succession-planning workshop, gearing it to include not
only farms and ranches, but all businesses.
The two-part workshop will begin Sept. 24 at the
OSU Southern Oregon Research and Extension Center, 569
Hanley Road, Central Point. The second workshop will be
Oct. 22 at Klamath Basin Research and Extension Center
offices at 3328 Vandenberg Road in Klamath Falls. Both
workshops run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
For more information contact 883-7131 or e-mail
Willie Riggs at
Willie.Riggs@oregonstate.edu
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