Progress report for FNC24-1417
Project Information
Roper Farms team members include Sue and Amy Roper. Roper Farms has operated as a grassfed beef operation for many years. Amy Roper, Sue’s daughter, is interested in taking over the farm operation as her parents retire and has started to explore ways to diversify the farming operation. They have already added numerous livestock species but are very interested in adding specialty crops, fruits and value-added products. Additional Roper family members are also interested in becoming co-operators of the farm and are especially interested in learning about fruit production. The opportunity to take over management of Clover Valley Farms is an opportunity to generate income while learning the skills to eventually establishing their own production systems. Both farm teams recognize that creative opportunities need to be created to support the expansion of sustainable farming practices thorough non-traditional value transfer that facilitates the retention and transfer of sustainable farming expertise into future farming generations.
Jeff Hall and Cindy Hale of Clover Valley Farms operate an ecologically and financially sustainable, diversified fruit operation including approximately 5 acres of tree fruits (e.g. apples, pears, cherries & plums), small fruits (e.g. Aronia, elderberry, high bush cranberry, honeyberry, chokecherry and black, red & white currants) and year-round herb production in a year-round solar greenhouse (e.g. garlic, rosemary, sage, thyme, oregano, mint). Over 25 years, they have established a very diversified farm operation with orchards, small fruit and perennial herb plantings that are now at peak production. They also established a well-known local farm brand of value-added products made from their fruits and herbs (e.g. vinegars, sauces, mustards, herb salts, etc.). Cindy and Jeff are interested in stepping back from full-time management of their operation, but like many aging farmers, want to continue living on their farm and don’t want the production capacity they have developed over 25 years to degrade. They have mentored other young farmers, and now see an opportunity through creative lease/mentorship agreements to provide land access, production capacity and business mentorship to support a next generation of farmers. Jeff and Cindy will provide access to their land and established production as well as mentorship to the Ropers related to fruit & herb production (e.g. annual pruning, management, harvesting & processing of fruits & herbs, organic & integrated pest management); value-added product recipe development and processing; licensing and marketing through various channels (e.g. Product of the Farm, Cottage Food and Licensed value-added products).
Farm transition is generally assumed to be through
intergenerational transfer or sale of farmland. However, a
rapidly increasing number of aging farmers, especially those of
small, highly diversified farms, want to continue owning and
living on their land while finding others to manage it. These
farmers are highly motivated to mentor and provide land and
production access to young farmers. Current models for farm
transition lack innovative strategies and structures that would
allow the young farmers to acquire equity or capital that does
not involve land transfer. This grant will explore meaningful and
valuable mechanisms to support value transfer from experienced
farmers to young farmers through a variety of pathways that
provide land and production capacity access as well as mentorship
to young farmers while preserving the ability of retiring farmers
to continue living on their farms. Historically, accumulation of
equity or wealth by young farmers has been primarily achieved
through land ownership and subsequent investment in
infrastructure and production capacity. With increasing land
values due to rural to suburban development, availability of
farmland has decreased and become less accessible. Young farmers
often lack the financial ability to buy established operations
and/or lack the skills to take over such operations.
SOLUTION:
Increasing sustainable farming requires that farming expertise
and land not be lost as the demographics and financial realities
of farming change. We will work with a diverse team of
professionals (i.e. legal, financial, UMN Extension, etc.) to
determine meaningful, equitable and valuable mechanisms to
support value transfer from experienced farmers to young farmers.
The value transfer mechanisms will include both financial gain by
the young farmers (mentees) and a long-term plan for the farm
owner. While this project will focus specifically on developing
these tools for the Clover Valley Farm – Roper Farm partnership,
we will involve other farmers who are in similar situations so as
to provide broader context for the transferability of this
projects results to other farm owners and young farmers. We will
work with UMN Extension Farm Transition professionals and Farm
Commons to develop a tool kit for non-traditional farm value
transfer opportunities.
Mechanisms for value transfer that we will explore/ develop may
include:
- Short to long term lease options (1-3 year, with options to
extend) that provide:- Access to land/production, buildings, and other farm
infrastructure for mentees. - Plan for maintenance of production capacity and farm
infrastructure (who is responsible for what, financial and
labor) - Memorandum of understanding (MOU) of what each
participant will contribute to and get from the arrangement
(i.e. the scope and depth of mentorship provided by the farm
owners, the labor exchange provided by the mentee) - Eventual option to buy if desired by both parties.
- Access to land/production, buildings, and other farm
- Management training and business transition plan
- Create an annual timeline for management activities (i.e.
pruning, pest management, harvesting, understory management,
fall/winter preparation, etc.) along with estimated
labor/time and supplies needed - Introduce/train on farm record keeping tools (i.e.
harvesting, time/labor cost, accounting, etc.) - Introduce/train on farm food safety protocols for both
production and value-added processing. - Provide historic harvest records and pricing for
financial farm planning purposes. - Provides introductions & contacts with existing customers
to facilitate smooth business transitions
- Create an annual timeline for management activities (i.e.
- Financial incentives
- Beginning farmer tax benefits to farm owner
- Accumulation of wealth by mentee (i.e. cash, equipment,
etc.) - Ability of mentee to build their farm name/brand and
skills - Low/no cost leasing by mentee
- Business structures and/or entities that support “value
transfer plans”- Non-profit
- Durable agricultural easements
- Trust
- Life Estate
- Eventual purchase or gift transfer (in the model of land
back or reparations movements) - An innovative easement known as a Profit a Prendre that
could ensure access to the land for
harvesting perennial crops, regardless of who owns title to
the land. - Others
OBJECTIVES:
1) Create lease and MOU agreements that allow for the
establishment of clear expectations between farm owner and farm
mentee.
2) Create multiple alternative pathways and mechanisms for the
farm mentee to acquire financial wealth through the
land/production access and mentorship provided.
3) Establish planning documents that allow for both farm owners
and farm mentees to clearly establish their needs and goals,
for effective pairing of and planning among farm owners with
mentees.
4) Share findings through farm field days and dissemination among
UMN Extension programs and through other organizations
active in land access, emerging farmers mentorship and farm
transition.
Cooperators
- - Producer
- - Producer
- - Producer
Research
Clover Valley Farms (Cindy Hale & Jeff Hall) mentored the youngest generation of the Roper family (Kelsey & Eric DeFoe) weekly on every step of how we manage, monitor, harvesting and using/selling the fruit production on our farm. We focused on helping the mentees to learn about and understand the changing activities related to diverse, perennial fruit production over the year. The activities included, but were not limited to, learning about the types and varieties fruits at CVF (i.e. rhubarb, honeyberry, red-black-white currants, juneberries, elderberry, Aronia, high bush cranberry, apples, pears, cherries, plums), spring planting of soft wood cuttings (i.e. elderberry & currants) and new trees/small fruits (i.e. juneberry, bench grafted fruti trees) , weeding/weed control (i.e. hand and mechanical), mulching (e.g. why, what, when & how), monitoring the fruit crop through bloom, fruit development and harvest, summer pruning, pest & disease control (e.g. IPM, fungal & bacterial diseases, insect pests), fencing/tree protection (e.g. small mammals, deer, birds), end of season orchard floor management and preparing stock to go into winter dormancy. Cindy & Jeff worked side by side with Kelsey & Eric (and their young children) every Monday from 10am-2pm, May through October 2024. Mentorship was also provided related to the packaging, marketing and pricing the of the fruit crops as well as value-added products that can be made using the fruits produced. Weekly records were kept to record total time worked for all participants, what tasks were completed, the type and quantity of fruits harvested and some information on direct and farm market sales of product transferred to the Ropers.
We developed an online survey for both retiring and aspiring farmers to gather information about their, interests, experiences and needs to inform our approach to our own project and the legal tools we will develop (i.e. lease and/or management agreements) as products of this project. The survey was deployed in later November and responses were collected until our Jan 23rd virtual field day. We had over 35 farmer owners and over 72 beginner farmers who took the survey.
We hosted a virtual field day on January 23rd, noon-1pm, and had about 35 people attend. Our project team provided brief overviews of our project activities so far, the survey results and then hosted break out discussion groups based on 3 different overarching questions that came up in our efforts and the survey. These included:
1) Discuss ways you personally or others you know have worked through reconciling different values, perspectives & expectations of farmers
2) Equity: What are your ideas on addressing getting along well in a farmer owner - beginner farmer arrangement to avoid disenfranchisement and power disparities
3) Legal tools: Do you have experience with legal tools - what might they be and how do you prepare to use them? What things you think should be considered before starting.
Results from 2024:
Mentorship:
The mentoring process, and record keeping, provided us with the beginnings of a season calendar of activities which will form the basis for developing a mentee handbook for the management of Clover Valley Farms. It will be added to, along with relevant recourse, in a three ring binder (physical and digital) in year 2 as a living document to help both the retiring farmer and mentees know what needs to be done and understand the living processed in our specific type of fruit production. We were able to document the cash value of product transfer to the mentees, including cuttings & nursery stock (e.g. Elderberry, Juneberry, Currants) = $318 and fruit crops harvested (e.g. Rhubarb, Honeyberry, Red & Black Currants, Apples - 16 varieties, Plums & Pears = $6,495). We have not yet been able to develop a strategy for documenting or assigning a monetary value to the non-tangible aspects to the mentoring efforts. This will be a focus in 2025.
Because the mentees (Kelsey & Eric) had no previous farming experience, their learning curve was very steep. Luckily, the elder Ropers (Amy & Sue) were able to provide support and guidance to the mentees with respect to identifying sales avenues and assisting in marketing and pricing of products. Had they not had this support, it would have been much harder for the mentees to successfully convert the raw agricultural products into income. That kind of support would have been very difficult for CVF to provide. This aspect of any farm management transition needs to be considered if the relationship is to be successful.
The mentors had to also adapt to the realties of working with mentees that had limited baseline knowledge and skills. The mentors had to modify their expectations, learn how to more effectively communicate both the farming methods and expectations to the mentees. Creating these kinds of transition plans is more about building a working relationship than simply instructing someone on what they need to do on the farm day to day. This will be an ongoing process for us in year 2.
Interestingly, the list of "Value Transfer Challenges" in our PowerPoint presentation for the virtual field day (attachments below) were developed independently by the mentors and the mentees. However, they were very similar, indicating that there was pretty close agreement of what were and we not challenges, a good omen for the future!
Value Transfer Challenges included:
- Mentee availability to harvest in what seemed to them like spur of the moments, when crop loads were large.
- How the mentee can best use the raw agricultural product.
- Mentee learning and Mentor teaching with an eye towards understanding and planning for production timing and volumes.
- Mentees understanding what feels like work completion for the mentors.
- Mentors understanding what feels like a good and equitable relationship to the mentees.
- Creating a record keeping system that works for everyone.
We chose not to create a formal written agreement between mentors & mentees, however, through the development of this grant project plan we had already pretty clearly established expectations. The need for any mentee-mentor relationship to establish clear, written and mutually agreed upon goals, expectations and contingency plans could not be over stated as a priority before starting!
Field Day:
- SARE-Virtual Field Day (slides)
- SARE-Virtual-Field-Day - FNC24-1417 (.pdf)
- Virtual Field Day 1.23.2025 Agenda
Survey Results:
- Farm Transition and Succession - Aspiring Farmer Survey Results
- Farm Transition and Succession - Retiring Farmer Survey Results
Yet to do in 2025:
In anticipation of the mentees taking a more independent role in managing the fruit production than the working side-by-side model we used in 2024, we will be developing a formal management agreement. Now that the mentees have a better idea of what is required to do the job, they will be coming up with an overall proposal on how much they realistically can commit to doing. If they feel they can take on the full scope of fruit management, they will let the mentors know when and how they propose to achieve that goal (i.e. when they will come to the farm, hour many hours, what equipment/tools they will need to use vs. use or bring themselves, etc.). If they decide they cannot realistically take on all of the production, they will propose what they can commit to. Then we will craft a management agreement to fit those realities.
We have not yet been able to develop a strategy for documenting, describing or assigning a value to the non-tangible aspects to the mentoring efforts. This aspect of any mentee-mentor relationship is very important. Perhaps even more important than the market value of products! We will work creatively to approach answering these questions. One tool we will use to try to get more insight will be conducting in-depth interviews with a subset of folks that completed our online survey. We want to learn from others experiences and perspectives to help identify common threads that will be helpful to our project and hopefully to inform the project tools we will be developing so that other farmers can learn from our project. Rachel Armstrong, creator executive director and attorney with Farm Commons will help us turn these ideas into tangible templates for management and/or lease agreement templates.
Educational & Outreach Activities
Participation Summary:
Virtual Field Day 1.23.2025 Agenda
Virtual Field Day hosted Jan 23rd 2025. Described in more detail in sections above.
Learning Outcomes
Discussed in sections above
Project Outcomes
none as of yet, plans discussed in above section.
none yet, expected in final report