Survey seeks secrets to success-ion

An new national survey will seek to answer the age-old question of why some families succeed at succession, and some do not.

The first national survey of farm business succession to be made in 20 years has been launched by a team from the University of New England (UNE), with the aim of improving one of the most challenging aspects of agriculture.

The FarmTransfer survey has the ambitious goal of getting more than 700 respondents to put data behind anecotes on the topic. 

Dr Lucie Newsome, a Senior Lecturer with UNE’s Business School and one of the team that devised the FarmTransfer survey, said that despite years of discussion about the need to do better on succession, too many Australian farm families arestill failing at the process.

“We hope that the survey will provide contemporary insights into how families succeed at this process, and why they fail. The information will support farm groups and consultants who are working to improve the farm succession process,” Dr Newsome said.

The team intends to also publish a guide for farm families who are facing succession.

“For this survey to help farm families, we need the broadest possible engagement,” Dr Newsome said.

“We’re hoping for a coast-to-coast geographical spread of respondents; representation from across all the mainstream agriculture sectors; and importantly, reporting of succession experiences from awful to excellent.

“We know it will be particularly hard for those who have been through a really terrible experience, one that might have torn their family apart, to sit down and revisit that time. But by doing so, they may help other families avoid the problems that the survey respondent faced.”