Farms Forever: A partnership approach to increasing farm transfer and succession in southeastern Massachusetts

Farms Forever: A partnership approach to increasing farm transfer and succession in southeastern Massachusetts

Summary

The agricultural community in Southeastern Massachusetts faces a loss of critical mass. Under SARE CNE06-010, SEMAP conducted planning for a local program to enable new and second-generation producers begin farming in our region through increased farmland transfer and tenure arrangements. We identified two beneficiary groups with clear needs: exiting producers, who say they don’t know how to take the first step in farm transfer planning, and entering producers, who want to connect with exiting farmers and non-farming landowners and explore farm structures that don’t involve land ownership. A third group, non-farm landowners who want their land farmed, say they don’t know how to find farmers or understand their tenure needs. We identified many organizations and publications that could help producers in our region, notably Land For Good (LFG) and Farm Transfer Network of New England (FTNNE). But despite these resources, producers feel stuck and unconnected. What is missing? We believe it is a local, on-the-ground catalyst for producer action, referrals, networking, and follow-up.

To fill this gap, under this grant SEMAP is working to implement a regional program, “Farms Forever,” (FF) that will: catalyze producer action on farm transfer planning by leveraging existing funds to offer LFG “packages” in our region, create local peer examples and outreach, implement a referral network to service providers (linked to FTNNE and including land trusts), provide a local communication hub and ongoing follow-up, conduct outreach to non-farming landowners, and help connect land trusts and the ag community. FF will be a central local catalyst and resource to give a clear answer to the question, “Where Do I Start?” SEMAP is working closely with LFG, The Trustees of Reservations, and First Pioneer to implement Farms Forever. Our performance target is that at least 8 exiting and/or entering producers will complete one of several farm transfer/tenure scenarios, resulting in a viable new farm entity in Southeastern Massachusetts.

To date, we have hired a Coordinator for this program, conducted extensive outreach, begun work with 5 local farms on LFG packages, and reached our first Milestone. We are planning for winter meetings and ongoing outreach that will allow us to reach Milestone 2 and increase the number of direct project beneficiaries.

Objectives/Performance Targets

Milestone 1: UNDER SEPARATE FUNDING: 600 producers receive applications for reduced-cost “Transfer the Farm!” package from Land For Good. 20 farms apply; 10 are selected. These 10 farms begin LFG packages in Jan. 2007 or later, continuing for 6 months (7 farms) or 12 months (3 farms). Each recipient conducts at least 1 outreach activity to other growers (serving as case study, writing op-ed, presentation, or other). (Nov.-Dec. 06).

Milestone 2: 200 exiting producers and 100 entering producers hear about the project from the point of view of other producers through outreach activities by farms receiving LFG packages (articles, presentations, case studies etc). (By Dec. 07).

Milestone 3: 30 exiting producers and 30 entering producers contact SEMAP to request further information, next steps, and/or a referral to a service provider. (By Dec. 07).

Milestone 4: 20 exiting and 20 entering producers follow up with a service provider in our referral network to prepare for farm transfer activities. (By Feb. 08).

Milestone 5: 10 exiting and 10 entering producers meet individually with potential farm transfer partner(s): entering/exiting grower, family member(s), non-farm landowner, land trust. (Apr. 08).

Milestone 6: 8 exiting and 8 entering producers engage in an intensive one-on-one farm transfer planning process with service providers and a farm transfer partner. (By Jan. 09).

Performance target: Of these 16 producers, AND 10 farms receiving LFG packages, at least 8 producers complete a farm transfer/tenure arrangement resulting in creation of a viable new farm entity in Southeastern Massachusetts. Scenarios may include: a) partial or complete transfer or sale of exiting grower’s farm to 2nd-generation or unrelated entering producer, b) Long-term lease of a farm property by an entering producer (property may be owned by a non-farming landowner, retiring grower, or land trust), or c) sale of a farm property to a land trust, which hires an entering producer to establish a farm enterprise on the land. (By February 2010).

Accomplishments/Milestones

Our progress to date on SEMAP’s Farms Forever program has given us a sense both of the great need for our program, and for the great challenges involved in meeting this need. Though initial project steps have gone more slowly than we’d hoped, right now it feels like our efforts are quickly gaining visibility and momentum. This narrative presents our milestones and describes our progress towards them to date. Our milestones overlap somewhat, that is, we may be in contact with some beneficiaries on an initial milestone while we are already working with other growers towards later milestones.

Milestone 1: UNDER SEPARATE FUNDING: 600 producers receive applications for reduced-cost “Transfer the Farm!” package from Land For Good. 20 farms apply; 10 are selected. These 10 farms begin LFG packages in Jan. 2007 or later, continuing for 6 months (7 farms) or 12 months (3 farms). Each recipient conducts at least 1 outreach activity to other growers (serving as case study, writing op-ed, presentation, or other). (Nov.-Dec. 06).

Work towards our first project milestone has actually been underway since 2006 under funding from the A.D. Makepeace Neighborhood Fund. SEMAP’s grant from this funder provided partial support for 10 farm transfer planning “packages” (a 6-month consulting process) from our project partner Land For Good, a NH-based nonprofit specializing in individualized farm transfer planning support for farm families. Makepeace grant funds allow us to offer these packages, at least a $500 value, to farms for just $150, and they provide individualized, 1-on-1 service – something local growers told us was very important during focus groups we held to help plan Farms Forever. So, as noted above, our initial expectation was that we would have more applicants for these packages than we would be able to serve, and that we would have to conduct an application and review process.

Instead, we have found the opposite – to date, only 5 packages have been claimed, and we have conducted extensive outreach to find new package applicants. It should be noted that all package recipients have been extremely pleased with the package opportunity, and we are very pleased with the dedication of all package families. Price has not been an issue for anyone involved either. So, it’s not that the offering is not valuable or affordable. We believe it’s just that convincing families to take the first concrete step in farm transfer planning is very difficult, even when we are offering support that matches as closely as possible the kind of support farms initially told us they would like. It’s just a hard issue to confront.

Currently, we have:
5 packages underway
2 packages in process of beginning
3 packages remaining available.

The major downside to this situation is that we have fewer producers whom we can call on to conduct outreach activities to other producers than we hoped. A few of the package recipients are also dealing with sensitive family situations not yet resolved, and so have not felt able to do this outreach. However, we have had 2 successful outreach activities and our 2 new package families have both expressed willingness to conduct these outreach activities in the near future. We are looking ahead to several good outreach possibilities in the winter and early spring, as described below.

The major positive aspect of this situation is that the families using the packages were really and fully ready for the support. We know that the packages are providing much needed support to excellent candidates who are committed to having their land remain in farming. At the moment, we are continuing our outreach to promote the availability of the packages and combining this with outreach about the Farms Forever program in general.

Milestone 2: 200 exiting producers and 100 entering producers hear about the project from the point of view of other producers through outreach activities by farms receiving LFG packages (articles, presentations, case studies etc). (By Dec. 07).

As described above, the slower-than-expected response to our initial program offering of the Land For Good packages has also slowed our progress on creating opportunities for producer outreach activities through Farms Forever. However, one major development has helped us continue to make good progress on this front – the hiring of Katie Cavanagh as Farms Forever Coordinator in October 2007. In just two month we have seen a major increase in program activity as a result of having the Coordinator in place – we think we can feel the snowball picking up speed! This is in part a result simply of having someone in place to conduct ongoing focused outreach and to answer and generate new inquiries. In addition, Katie grew up on her family’s farm in our region and has recently begun a farm transfer planning process with her own family. She combines this personal experience, and a very empathetic nature, with professional experience in case management at a social service agency. As a result, she is able to bring to all of her outreach activities her own perspective as a younger-generation farm family member addressing farm transfer issues herself. Though we are still committed to creating outreach activities for as many other package recipients as possible, it has already made a major difference to have Katie at work on promoting the packages and Farms Forever in general to other local farms.

Progress to date on this milestone, with the type of outreach and the number of producers present or targeted by the outreach, is as follows:

Personal Outreach:

Katie Cavanagh presentation at Transferring the Farm workshop, 3/07: 12 farms
Sarah Kelley and Bob. Bernstein (Land For Good) booth at Cranberry Growers’ summer meeting: 200 heard announcement, engaged 20 in direct conversation at booth.
Sarah Kelley visits to town Agricultural Commission meetings, winter 06-07 – 40 producers directly contacted (4 towns), asked them to provide information to other farms in town.
Katie Cavanagh attendance at Plymouth Conservation District meeting, 12/07: 30 producers attending. Brief announcement about packages and FF in general.

Total beneficiaries reached through personal outreach: 102

Newsletter/mailing outreach:
Initial mailing of 600 to SEMAP farm mailing list announcing packages
Mass. Dept of AG Resources Farm and Market Report Announcement on FF and packages, 11/07: emailed 2900 names
Mass. Farm Bureau Newsletter announcement, 11/07: – ask John
NE Dairy Challenge, 11/07: Program information provided to 126 students from NE Ag Schools.
Posting on SEMAP website Farms Forever page with other info and resources.

Total beneficiaries reached through newsletter/mailing outreach: 1000-2000

Upcoming:

Another mailing planned to 600 farms on SEMAP mailing list to announce FF offerings and winter meeting
Katie Cavanagh to conduct second round of meetings with town AgComs – currently 12 AgComs in region.
Joint SEMAP-Bristol Conservation District meeting planned for late Feb. 2008 – resource fair and trade show – Katie Cavanagh to present info on FF and packages. Another package recipient will also be involved in presentation. Expect 100-200 attendees based on last year’s numbers.
SEMAP FF winter networking meeting: currently planning to condense networking session for each target groups into one meeting with breakout groups and general networking. Scheduled for early march 2008. A package recipient will be indentiftied for outreach along with Katie. Expect 50-75 attendees?

With these meetings planned, we believe we are on track to meet Milestone 2 by the end of March 2008.

Milestone 3: 30 exiting producers and 30 entering producers contact SEMAP to request further information, next steps, and/or a referral to a service provider. (By Dec. 07).

As mentioned above, progress towards this milestone is occurring concurrently with progress towards Milestones 1 and 2. It is occasionally difficult to determine whether a contact should be classified as an exiting or entering grower – for example, it’s often the case that the younger generation will contact us, but the inquiry is primarily about issues relating to the exiting older generation. We’ve generally grouped them based on the status of the person who contacted us.

To date the SEMAP E.D. and/or Farms Forever Coordinator have been contacted by:

10 exiting producers
10 entering producers – next generation and/or seeking land
6 landowners – seeking farm managers or people to lease land – includes 1 local town and 1 local land trust with available land, 1 local nonprofit seeking a farm manager, and 3 individuals seeking farm managers.

Other project aspects:

In addition to our project goals, we recently made concrete progress towards our fundraising goals for the program. SEMAP was awarded a $20,000 grant from the Mass. Office of Small Business and Entrepreneurship to support the 1-on-1 technical assistance to small businesses SEMAP is offering through Farms Forever. SARE support was invaluable in leveraging these additional state funds, and we are continuing our efforts to raise funds to complement SARE support and fund Farms Forever fully through 2010

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

We are still in the very early stages of our project and have not reached the outcomes we projected. We will continue to report on our progress towards these outcomes as we move forward.

Collaborators: