Succession Decisions in U.S. Family Farm Businesses

Farm transfer or succession by the “next generation” holds a place of central importance in the determination of industry structure and total number of farmers and has profound implications for farm families. The family farm sector relies heavily on intergenerational succession. Succession and retirement are linked and reflective of the life cycles of the farm household and the farm business. A large farm-level data set and a logistic regression model were used to examine the determinants of farm succession decisions in the United States, with special emphasis given to the treatment of endogenous wealth and farm size variables. Results point to the importance of farmer’s age, educational attainment of farm operators, off-farm work by the operator or operator and spouse, expected household wealth, and farm business location on the decision to have succession plans