Trustworthy crop farmer calls a financial podcast
Description
Vocal Characteristics
Language
EnglishVoice Age
Senior (55+)Accents
North American (General) North American (South West - Texas)Transcript
Note: Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and may contain errors.
Hi, My name's Alan. I'm 61 I'm a row crop farmer, producing primarily corn, soybeans and cotton. I've been running the family farm almost 30 years after I inherited it from my dad. Um back then we were just 1000 acres. But growth was always a big goal of mine, and over the years we expanded to 9000 acres. In the early days, I had my four kids helping out My wife, Elizabeth helps manage the business, and paper works out of things, while I've always stayed focused on working the land. Um, as the kids got older and moved away, I brought in four hands to help me out and that setups been great for the last few years. But Lizzie and I are both starting to think about retirement. I gotta be honest. That's got me a bit concerned. Not the farm that's running smoothly, but I just don't think any of our kids are interested in taking things over. I want them to follow their own paths, but there's a lot of history and memories here, and I know I could sell, but for me, the farm has been in the family for so long, I would hate to see it change hands. Ah, lot of my neighbors have already retired and some have rented out their farms, but I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that. Some of those renters don't take care of the farm in the same way the owner did. I take pride in how we operate, and I want to make sure that standard is maintained, particularly if I'm not there to oversee things. When I was in town last week, I got to talking to my neighbor, Bill. Well, he suggested that I start selling off some of our equipment to help had our savings ahead of our retirement. I'm just not really sure what to do If my kids don't want to take over, I'd like to set things up so that the farm would still support him all After Elizabeth and I are gone, However, I also want to ensure they'd still have the opportunity to take over the farm if they ever wanted to. In the future. I guess I'm not sure how I could leave it for them in an equitable manner. I don't think I'll be able to manage the farm for too much longer, at least not at this size. Also, me and Lizzie have some things on the bucket list We'd like to dio, and I'd like if we weren't too bogged down with responsibility while we try new things.