Agribusiness banking specialist Rabobank has announced the launch of a new workshop series for farmers focused on succession planning.
The free one-day workshop is open to both Rabobank clients and non-clients and aims to help provide attendees with an understanding of business transition and succession, giving them the confidence to start and progress their own farm succession plan.
Following a successful pilot event in Feilding earlier this month, further workshops are now scheduled in the Otago region over coming weeks, with additional workshops also being organised for other regions later in the year.
The workshop is the third and latest offering in Rabobank’s Financial Skills Workshop series, which was initiated by its Client Council network and launched in 2021. The first two modules in the series – Module One: Understanding Financial Performance and Module Two: Taking Control of your Numbers – continue to run across the country and have been attended by more than 1500 farmers and growers over the past five years.
Course facilitator Lawrence Field (front) puts farmers through their paces at the pilot succession workshop in Feilding.
All of Rabobank’s Financial Skills Workshops are facilitated by Lawrence Field from Rural Field Consultants, with the costs for the series covered by the Rabobank Community Fund – a fund set up by the bank in 2021 to help contribute to the vibrancy and resilience of rural New Zealand.
Rabobank NZ CEO Todd Charteris, said the catalyst for the new succession workshop was feedback provided to bank staff and Client Council members on the need for more information on farm succession.
“We regularly ask our clients about the financial topics they want further information on, and this is one topic that has come up time and time again in the discussions our agri managers have with farmers and growers across the country as well as in data gathered through our Rural Confidence Surveys,” he said.
“There is clearly strong farmer demand for more guidance on how to tackle farm succession challenges, so we worked alongside our Client Councils and course facilitator Lawrence Field to develop this new workshop, and we’re confident it will prove popular with farmers across the country.”
Mr Charteris said the new succession workshop covered topics including asset transfer, business continuance, intergenerational farm ownership, how to clarify roles and responsibilities, and identifying the next steps to make real progress.
“We had about 25 farmers along to the pilot workshop we ran in Feilding and we had some really positive feedback on this,” he said.
“One of the things we required for this workshop was that a minimum of two participants per farming business attended. This is something we’ll continue to request for future workshops as it helps increase the level of buy-in as well as the likelihood that actions will be taken to advance a succession plan to the next stage.”
Mike Osborne, who owns a sheep and beef farm in Kimbolton and dairy farm in Hokitika, attended the Feilding pilot alongside his wife Jane and said the workshop had been hugely valuable.
“The workshop was a fantastic opportunity for us to spend some time working together and discussing the next big step for our family business. It was a privilege to be part of,” he said.
“Lawrence did a really good job facilitating the event and we’ve now got a much better understanding of the fundamentals which will help us to further advance family succession discussions.”
Off the back of the successful pilot, Mr Charteris said, succession workshops had now been confirmed for Balclutha on 3 June, Alexandra on 4 June, Oamaru on 5 June.
“Over the coming months we’ll be taking these workshops to other regions across New Zealand, and I’d encourage farmers who are interested in attending a future event to keep an eye on the Rabobank website or to reach out to their local Rabobank representative to register their interest,” he said.
In addition to new succession-focused workshops, Mr Charteris said, the bank would soon be releasing a new White Paper examining succession on farm.
“This new paper will be launched at the upcoming Primary Industries New Zealand Summit in Christchurch in late June and will take a closer look at the changing picture of land ownership in New Zealand agriculture, the key drivers of this, and the emerging models to facilitate intergenerational and other forms of succession,” he said.