4 minute read
BUSINESS OF FARMING
FAMILY AND FARM BUSINESS: A FEW BEST PRACTICES IN THINKING ABOUT FARM RESILIENCY
BY KELLI RUSSELL, PH.D.
Ninety-six percent of all U.S. farms are family-owned, and the number for Alabama mirrors the national average.1 When talking about the challenges that family farms face, farmers often discuss factors directly related to production and farm profitability: the market, weather and agricultural labor. These factors are all outside of a farmer’s control and are known collectively as “extraordinary stressors.” In addition to these stressors that family farms have no control over, family farms face common or “everyday stressors”: the managing of family schedules, childcare, relationships and work/life balance, which are stressors also experienced by those who are not involved in agriculture. Research on family farm resiliency shows that sustaining and continuing the family business—the farm—can be difficult in different seasons of life depending on the extraordinary and everyday stressors a family experiences.
Sustainable family business research identifies the balance between the work in and for the family business with family life as the most difficult challenge for family businesses.2 For farmers, this is especially acute as farming is not an 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. operation that an employee can “clock out” from each day, but rather is a 24 hour/7 day a week enterprise running 365 days a year. Furthermore, farming is commonly viewed by farmers as a lifestyle that they desire to share with their families. Sustainable family business studies have mapped the various factors related to everyday and extraordinary stressors to identify multiple factors that impact long-term family business viability and sustainability. Key resources for families include their social, human and financial capital and key resources for the farm include the same—social, human and financial capital that overlaps with the individual family members’ capital. Families are guided by roles (husband, wife, child, etc.) and common family values, whereas farm businesses are guided by their structure and ownership formulation in addition to the owner’s goals and values. While family farms may have seasons of stability that overlap with a family’s season of stability, oftentimes the two differ as the interactions, work, and transactions that occur are independent.
In studying interactions and transactions for family businesses, strong communication efforts are central to short-term and long-term sustainable family business development.3 As the cliché goes, communication is key, and communication is essential in both family and farm business aspects of life, including the ordinary (everyday) stressors and the extraordinary stressors. For family farm businesses, here are a few best practices for navigating risks and stressors:
Even if you think everyone is on the same page, plan sessions to discuss farm business and expectations. Just as farmers often set aside time for farm work (planting or harvesting crops, weaning or vaccinating calves, and so on), set aside time to discuss planning for each season of the farm. There are roles within each family and then separate (yet sometimes overlapping) roles within the family farm business. Be sure to discuss roles and expectations for each new season. Include everyone within the family in the discussions—both young and old. Children are often termed “the future” of farming; however, they are the present of farming as well as they are often found helping around the family farm. Children who are included in family business discussions early have a better understanding of the intersection between farm and family. On multi-generational farms, incorporating each family member—including older family members that might not be involved in the day-to-day running of operations—in discussions of plans is helpful for decision-making, building strong family and farm identities and problem-solving.
Take inventory of your and your family’s resilience skills and draw on your shared values that underpin both your family and your family farm. Whereas discussing farm management decisions as a family may come easy, set aside time to individually and collectively discuss farm goals, personal and farm adaptability and hardiness regarding stressors, and ways to better use community and farm organization resources. Agricultural organizations and entities, like Alabama Farmers Cooperative, have resources for members—use them to your advantage to better equip you, your family and your family farm.
