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Howie Hammond: You know, I wanted to ask each of them specifically if they thought they wanted the farm to continue and the ranch to continue in the family.

 

Andrea Lien: I just did not want 'em to sell it. You know, I always thought that one of us would go back there, and all of us felt connected to it. I don't think my older two sisters really felt like they would.

 

Hammond: You know we had talked with the kids, we got more serious about it. Hadn’t done anything really. And of course I had the health issue that made us get busy. 

 

Lien: We never really had the discussion of how does this work? Are we all three gonna own the farm equally, and we never had any of those conversations. We never really talked about succession planning. So when he got his diagnosis and they said, “you need to get your affairs in order. Enjoy the last months of your life.” It was – it was terrible. 

 

Hammond: This disease that I have that put me in this wheelchair had a lot to do with the idea that I took time to think about, you know, think about what I needed to do to help them make this work. It's just that little push that sometimes we need to make something happen.

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Megan Torgerson (narrating): A farm is like a relative. A farm is a thread. It can keep a family connected or it can split like a wedge. In the Milk River Valley near Malta, Montana, the farm and ranch stewarded by Howie Hammond and his daughter Andrea Lien is the gift and responsibility of a lifetime, possibly even longer. 

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Lien: I feel so much more worried about being the generation that loses the place or that has to sell the place.

 

Torgerson (narrating): Welcome to Reframing Rural, I’m Megan Torgerson. Today we have a father-daughter story. This is the first story in our succession series as it really drives home the lesson that tomorrow’s not guaranteed, so it’s best to plan ahead. I’ve explored succession in past podcast episodes, like when I spoke with my own family about what would happen to our farm and ranch in Northeast Montana when my father Russ retired. 

 

Russ Torgerson: When Mom and I are gone, I guess it's up to you girls, what you want to do with everything. As long as you girls agree on things, to do what you want with it. The main thing is, you got somebody that does a good job for you, or for us as long as we're alive and have something to say about it. I spent my whole life trying to put it together, you know, and mom and dad too. They worked their whole lives to pass it to us. 

 

Torgerson (narrating): Listeners often tell me this part made them cry.

 

Megan Torgerson: So earlier this year I kind of felt like your retirement was like the death of a family member, it kind of felt like…

 

Russ Torgerson : It's o.k. Megan, It's o.k. We're fine.

 

Torgerson (narrating): I also talked to a grassroots organization trying to support farmers through the process of succesion. Here’s one of their founding members, Laura Kiehl. 

 

Laura Kiehl: When it came time to name the group I proposed the ACES name the Agricultureal Community Enhancement and Sustainability and so it stuck. 

 

Torgerson (narrating): ACES, as it's affectionately known, is a rancher-led nonprofit based in Winnett Montana that's well-regarded in the West for its work keeping current and future generations working on the land. They’re also working to ensure that there are small town community spaces where producers can gather. Winnett ACES is a close collaborator on this season. Laura Nowlin, ACES' executive director, leaned in with the idea for a succession season.

 

Laura Nowlin: Successful succession is the key to keeping everything in balance – without the people on the land the stability begins to unravel. Succession planning is incredibly important for each individual ranch and its own future, but each individual operation fits into the whole and affects everything else around it.

 

Torgerson (narrating): During this monumental changing of the guard, land risks not only leaving the family, but leaving agriculture all together. Researchers have found that “in less than a generation, the United States [has] lost 11 million acres of farmland to expanding cities and suburbs.” (Land Trust Alliance). That’s more than twice the size of the state of Massachusetts. 

 

Succession is also relevant to people on the other side of the agricultural equation: consumers. 

 

Here in the West, agriculture is a central character in our cultural mythology. The tourist brochure image of Montana was built on the ranching mystique long before Paramount Network's “Yellowstone” entered the lexicon. Of course more than the symbol of the handsome cowboy or salt of the Earth farmer, like Montana’s own Jon Tester, we all require family agriculture to eat and to live. So do other animals. Pasture and cropland make up half of the Earth’s habitable land. (WWF) And 80% of wildlife species depend on these private lands for survival.

 

For the producers preserving these habitats, the topic of succession asks them to renew our vows to the farm, dream up a viable future and boldly step forward. UK writer and farmer, James Rebanks wrote, "A farm isn’t a fixed thing but often changes with every generation... This history is messy and complicated, like that of most families. People’s attachment to their land is renewed by each generation - through their holding on and working it. It could also be lost.” 

 

I personally have feared losing my family’s farm and ranch as my dad’s transitioned to retirement and other farmers have stepped in to lease our place. And I know that some farmers and ranchers taking over feel a pressure that can be crippling. I think it’s a big piece of the mental health crisis facing agricultural communities today.  

 

The exiting generation has their own set of fears.

 

Hammond: When I talk to people about succession planning or people talk about it, I sense a fear in my generation and older that they can't do it or they won't be able to do it. And I also sense that same fear from the younger generation that they're afraid that they might fail and that they might let mom and dad down. And it holds us back. I'm not going to deny them the opportunity to fail.

 

Torgerson (narrating): Today's story starts with Howie Hammond. Howie grew up the son of a native Norwegian speaker and a school teacher and WWII bomber pilot. He's been a farmer and rancher in Phillips County since his childhood summers helping on his dad and uncle’s farm. He’s a husband, a father of three and grandfather of six.

 

Howie has gentle, sloping eyes and straight wide shoulders that compliment the warmth and gravel of his voice. His voice changed when he developed a rare disease several years ago. Howie’s worked hard over his 70 years, signed his first mortgage at the age 19 for land three miles from the Canadian border. He later bought the old Simms’ place near the community of Loring – a homeplace that would become the hearth of the family farm and ranch that he built with his wife JoAnn parcel by parcel. 

 

Today their cow/calf operation and small grains farm spans 37,000 deeded and leased acres of coulees, sandstone rimrocks and high prairie ground that cover up bones from the Mesozic era. Howie and Joann got their start in the late 1970s, a time of false optimism in agriculture, when the farm crisis of the 80s quietly loomed in the background.

 

Hammond: Well, through the ‘80s, we went through a lot of drought like everybody and had years when we had to move cattle to a different location. It was the question of, do we sell them or can we move them to another location? And, there were places like Nebraska, that were getting a lot of rain, and they had a lot of pasture available.

 

We went to Nebraska to look for pasture, and, found it readily available, and thought that we were better off to try and hang on to our cows and rent pasture. So, we took the cows there, and they had been through a drought, but were having great years, but the one person in particular that we got to know real well, his father had passed away, hadn't done any succession planning.

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And they were faced with a huge inheritance tax on the ranch. So they got taxed. According to what they told us, they were up to 45 percent on some of that because there was no succession planning done. And, they owed almost as much inheritance tax as the appraisal on the property was worth. And it just was crippling for them.

 

There was – there was no way out. And they were, honestly, you know, I didn't blame them, but I could tell that they felt bitter that something hadn't been done. It could have been different. And that always stuck with me.

 

Torgerson (narrating): Howie starts with his story about the Nebraska ranchers when he delivers talks on the importance of succession planning to producers around Montana today. 

 

In a recording from Perennial Roots, a succession resource you'll hear excerpts from throughout the episode, that was co-hosted by Winnett ACES and Ranchers Stewardship Alliance, Howie picks up on his time with the ranchers in Nebraska who leased him grass in the '80s when it was too dry to pasture his cattle in Malta.

 

Hammond: We got real close to those people and we knew 'em, and we, we really felt for 'em. Their situation didn't end well because leasing the grass didn't save the ranch. They lost those places. 

 

Torgerson (narrating): More and more families are being forced to sell off their land today.  Agricultural outlets often report that only 30% of family businesses make it to the next generation. That number is cut in half when looking ahead to the third generation. For producers, the topic of succession - and the statistics surrounding it - conjure the frantic need to make a plan. But when Howie’s herd was down in Nebraska, he was in his 20s. He wasn't thinking about succession yet. He was focused on making a living by expanding his farm and ranch. 

 

Hammond: We ended up leaving cattle there for several years in one place. But, anyway, fast forward into the next years we farmed and we had opportunities to expand and we usually took them.

 

Torgerson (narrating): These opportunities saved him. Like with the Cottonwood Grazing Association, a collection of grassland owned by state, federal and private landowners, where ranchers bought membership with the corporation in exchange for rights to graze their cattle on the rangeland in summer. It was a more affordable deal than going out and buying the real estate, and enabled ranchers to build up their herd.

 

Hammond: That association kept a lot of people on the ranches. And then over the years, these places sold off or the shares sold. 

 

Torgerson (narrating): Howie owned 450 shares in Cottonwood Grazing Association, when the association decided to dismantle.

 

Hammond: The association decided to divide up the land and put it all into the ownership. So that was a big boost for us because we got that equity by owning that land. We had our loans paid off as an association. So that land went from being shares in a corporation, to being our land.

 

Torgerson (narrating): By the year 2000, Howie and his wife JoAnn's operation had grown considerably. Thanks in part to local help and help from foreign agricultural work programs. Through the years, the Hammonds have hosted workers from 13 different countries. Howie’s daughter Andrea, remembers what it was like to grow up with hired hands around from countries like Brazil, South Africa and Sweden.

 

Lien: We've had them from everywhere since I was young. And they used to live in the house with us. We had a room and a bathroom right as you come in. And now we have just labor houses around there. And most of them become veterinarians or one of them has his own cattle business. So it's really fun. It's been an interesting thing growing up for us girls to get to have people we know all over the place and learn about other cultures and you know you're pretty isolated and rural, but have connections everywhere.

 

Torgerson (narrating): There's a photo of Andrea and her family from this time. Andrea, her parents and sisters Ashley and Aimee flank a wooden sign reading The Hammond Ranch that hangs above each of their five names and the H Lazy J cattle brand. Beside the sign rests an old wagon wheel, a nod to the family's agricultural origins. Howie and JoAnn stand tall beside their girls in the farm yard’s entrance. The red barns and white picket fence look freshly painted. And the grass is June green and cut short, except what grows through the cattle guard before the Hammonds’ driveway.

 

Andrea, who inherited her father's strength and smile, recalls the years that followed this picture.

 

Lien: So we all went to college and got degrees and jobs off outside of the farm. And I think that was important to our parents to work for somebody else and have a job outside of the farm and ranch. Because I never felt like that was a job. That always was something that I enjoyed. I loved being able to go with Dad. And being the youngest I feel like I got to go with him all the time. My sisters were in school earlier and Mom could get me out of the house and send me with Dad and I loved when we would get to go, you know, move cows and ride horses and just be out there all the time. 

 

Torgerson (narrating): After their girls left, Howie and JoAnn had enough help to run the farm and ranch for a time. But as the operation expanded, it was harder to meet their growing labor needs and they began wondering what was next for their place. This period really marks the start of their succession story. 

 

Hammond: We always had really good hired help but when our girls all went to college, we started wondering what would happen. We had several nephews in the area that, you know, were good operators and looking for a place to grow. And we considered whether or not we should lease something to them. The work was getting to be more and more, you know the place had to keep growing. 

 

Torgerson (narrating): That's a pressure a lot of folks in agriculture feel. There’s been an endless need for farms to get bigger since the 70s and 80s to the point where small, conventional operations are nearly unheard of. Family places that do weather the gales of generational change today, are becoming bigger, and fewer and farther between.

 

Hammond: I guess I always believed if you're not growing, you're dying. And when we had an opportunity, we expanded and there had gotten to be a lot of work. And all of a sudden, I think in the late nineties, when the girls were starting to graduate high school and go on to college, we're thinking, where are we going to go from here? What are we going to do now? Uh, we talked about, you know, do we just lease all the farming and run the cows or do we vice versa?

 

Torgerson (narrating): Lots of farmers and ranchers are asking these questions right now. The lion’s share of farmland is owned by people over 65. Over 40% according to the USDA Census of Agriculture. Whether through death or retirement, Baby Boomers are exiting agriculture. And over the next 20 years, it’s estimated that one-third of all farmland in the lower 48 states will change hands. (AFT Farmland Information Center).

 

As Howie and JoAnn were considering next steps, they lost one of their hired workers and their labor needs ramped up. They were forced to get serious about making a change. 

 

Hammond: One guy had been with us 16 years and got a job with the gas company up here, and it was really good for him and we were happy for him. But after he left, we struggled to find people that would stick around or were dependable. And, I honestly was thinking, our girls were all – we had three daughters and they all graduated from Rocky Mountain College and were kinda scattered all over the United States. And I needed to slow down.

 

I didn't know what to do and had a nephew that was really wanting to lease some of the cows. So we called all the kids and let 'em know that we were thinking about making this move and that, we just weren't able to find dependable people and I wasn't able to keep up. 

 

Torgerson (narrating): This call came as a surprise to Andrea. She was in her 20s, newly married and focused on starting a career. She hadn't thought much about the future of her family's farm yet. Still the thought of it leaving her family's care stung.

 

Lien: I remember Mom and Dad calling us and saying they just want to talk to us about what they were thinking about doing or if they were possibly going to sell the place if anybody had any thoughts on it. And I was so shocked and could not believe that they were considering selling it, and I think they were shocked too that any of us had a big reaction to it, or were really against it, so I was basically devastated and couldn't believe they would think about it. 

 

Torgerson (narrating): While Howie and JoAnn's initial idea was to lease to their nephew, Andrea saw into the distant future the possibility that without her or one of her sisters taking over, their farm and ranch could quite possibly be sold off. Selling the land could mean it becoming an investment property or a hunter’s vacation spot. That's something Howie's watched happen on the Hi-Line. 

 

Hammond: We’re almost completely surrounded by out of state absentee landowners. I think at one time there was 56,000 contiguous acres, to our place that were owned by out of state owners. And none of those places were sold, because they're making too much money.

 

Torgerson (narrating): Other farmers around the state know that if their land leaves the family, it could end up paved over for parking lots and condos, as is the case with the agricultural land surrounding Bozeman where I live today. That’s not happening to the farmland around Malta, Montana, but still the pang of losing your family’s farm is universal. 

 

Hammond: Andrea said she just got sick to her stomach as soon as she hung up the phone when I called and said that we were thinking about doing this. Cause she thought this is the beginning of it, going to somebody else.

 

Torgerson (narrating): At the time Andrea had just finished a business degree and was living in Rapid City with her husband Wyatt Lien. They both were beginning new careers after college, something they were about to give up to take a big risk.

 

Hammond: The next day Andrea called and said, we want to come home, and I said, why? They were, you know, playing golf and co-ed softball. And they had a lot of fun and had really good jobs, and we talked about it and I said, you know, this is a lot of work. It's going to take a lot of time. But they wanted to go forward. So that was a pivotal moment, it’s really true.

 

Lien: Wyatt and I were just married almost a year, I guess. We lived in Rapid City, he worked for MDU, and I worked at a credit union. So we talked about, are we gonna try this? And so we decided to come back and try it. My husband, he grew up around Wolf Point until he was 10. Both sides grandparents, one had a farm, the other one had a ranch. So he was familiar with agriculture and farming and ranching, but it was pretty new and didn't really want us to commit too much.

 

He just said I want you to come and just try it for five years. We're just gonna basically treat it like a hired man. And don't make any decisions that make you feel like you have to stay here or that people will be disappointed if you decide this isn't what you want to do, because this is a big change. For Wyatt especially to coming the son in law coming back to work on the farm and ranch.

 

Torgerson: What was the transition like for your husband? 

 

Lien: It was a lot. He had worked pretty much 8 to 5, and you get paid vacation, and sick days, and all the things that you don't get anymore. And you don't work 40 hours a week ever again.

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I think good thing we came when we were young. I don't know if you came at this age if you might decide this is a bad idea. Yeah, it was a lot, and a lot to learn. But I was glad that we kind of had those first years of we’re just trying this out. We didn’t have to feel that pressure, so we could take years of learning if this is what we wanted to do, and how it works, and working alongside my parents and the other employees that work there too to kind of decide is this something you enjoy, this is the kind of life, you know, you want to live. Because it's not an easy life, but it's a good life.

 

Torgerson: Yeah, I was going to ask, like, what contributed to your decision to stay? Because you had that option.

 

Lien: Yeah, I don't know. I don't think I was ever going to leave. So I just really crossed my fingers that Wyatt was going to like it and that it would all grow on him. 

 

Torgerson (narrating): It’s a good thing Andrea and Wyatt didn’t leave, because things were about to change for Howie. 

 

Hammond: 2014 I was struggling a little bit. I had noticed things that I couldn't do anymore. One of the first things I realized, I couldn't throw a rope anymore. And then pretty soon I couldn't get on a horse. And, uh, I was exercising and dieting and trying to figure out what was going on. And then I had severe headaches and I just had a lot of problems.

 

Well, we went to five different neurologists in Billings and, one of the nurses was from Malta there and she actually had called all three girls and asked them to come to Billings and be there. And I didn't know they were coming. But we went into a room with the doctor and the head doctor she looked at me and said, “Howard, you have ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease.” And I didn't know what to say.

 

JoAnn, the kids were, they were all crying and the doctor pretty soon was in tears. And I said, “well, what does it mean?” And she said, “well, you're changing very fast, so I think you should get your affairs in order.”

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This season of Reframing Rural is produced in collaboration with Winnett ACES which stands for Agriculture Community Enhancement and Sustainability. The mission of the Winnett ACES is to strengthen their community by enhancing the health of their land, economy, and traditions for future generations. 

 

Season Four: Succession Stories is supported by the Plank Stewardship Initiative, World Wildlife Fund, Headwaters Foundation, and American Farmland Trust.

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Torgerson (narrating): Howie was just gathered with his family in a hospital room in Billings where he received the life-altering diagnosis of Lou Gehrig’s disease.

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Hammond: And I said, “so how long?” And she said, “I don't think you'll live for over two years. And you need to realize that pretty soon your eyes and your ears and your mind will always be the same, but you won't be able to move your hands, your arms, or your legs. And you won't be able to talk and communicate. You'll have to make a choice whether you're gonna go on a ventilator and how you're gonna communicate your wishes. So it's very important that you decide now what you're gonna do.” 

 

And that was a pretty big load right then and there.

 

Torgerson (narrating): At this point, Howie was running things on their farm and ranch. He had the help of Wyatt, his wife, other workers and Andrea. And Andrea was also working as a loan officer at the bank in Malta. But while the young couple planned to fill Howie’s shoes someday, this news was about to drastically accelerate the timeline of their transition. 

 

Lien: I think before the doctor came in, we just all were visiting normal. Just, you know, no idea that it was going to be this real detrimental, serious diagnosis where they were going to give him months to live.

 

So it was such a shock. I mean, it just almost feels not real to think about being in that doctor's office. I mean, you'll never forget it. When she said, you know, “it's a really nice day outside. I think you should enjoy the day, and I think you should get your affairs in order, and enjoy the last months that you have.”

 

It was really quickly feeling like, you know, we've just been told it's going to be months and what are we going to do, and what do we – what do we even do first?

 

It was, it was terrible. And they went fairly quickly as far as getting in touch with the lawyer to kind of start talking, like we have to figure out what we're doing. And it really pushed that succession planning because we didn't think we had long to do this. 

 

And as horrible as it was to go to all those meetings because it was so emotional in the time. You weren't just doing this for, “hey, maybe 20 years down the road, we should talk about what we're going to do.” This was horrible. You know, so emotional thinking, we're spending the last days [pause] you know… Sorry, trying to decide what we do when dad's gone.

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Torgerson (narrating): “How will I get on when my parents are gone,” is an existential question. “How will I take over management of my family's farm and ranch over the course of a few months,” is unfathomable. 

 

Wyatt and Andrea had envisioned having years to learn from Howie. Before the diagnosis, things were going great for them. The neighboring place went up for sale and they signed a Beginner Farmer Loan to buy it and raise a family. A few years later, they had twin girls. Andrea's siblings decided to move back too. They all had planned for many great years together back in Phillips County.

 

Howie’s diagnosis initiated many urgent and emotional meetings with the accountant and attorney. Andrea immediately put in her notice at the bank to help out more on the ranch. But the Hammonds also made time to enjoy the remaining months they had with Howie. 

 

Lien: We all went on a trip and went to a football game all together. And then they decided to go get a second opinion at Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic right away said, “well, they never did a muscle biopsy so we need to do that.” And so then to hear that news from Mom and Dad from Mayo, to call and say they were wrong and it's not ALS, it's an early aging of your muscles disease! 

 

Hammond: It's one of those times in your life that you always remember, because the place is so huge, and it's hard to believe that anybody knows anybody or cares about, you know, more than what they're doing. And we came out of that doctor's office and the nurse, first nurse, lined up and hugged JoAnn. And they were, you know, she was crying.

 

Pretty soon they were all lining up and giving us high fives and jumping around and hugging. There were 60 neurologists listed on the board, and the waiting room was the size of a gymnasium and there was six different stations. But this was the news of the day there. That there was somebody that had been diagnosed with ALS that didn't have it. So yeah, really quite a moment. 

 

Torgerson (narrating): At Mayo, Howie was correctly diagnosed with Inclusion-Body Myositis, a disease that causes muscle weakness like ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, but that’s slower-progressing.

 

Lien: Nothing like months or years, I mean. It's been quite a while since then so we were lucky to have gotten that jumpstart. We knew that dad's life was gonna change quite a bit and his role at the place, but to have him still be able to be there as a mentor and all of the knowledge and experience, and to help Wyatt and I through that for years instead of months, was a huge blessing. Plus we didn't stop doing the succession planning or any of the meetings. 

 

Hammond: I sometimes maybe come off as sounding like I was smart to do all this stuff. This disease that I have that put me in this wheelchair had a lot to do with the idea that I took time to think about what I needed to do to make this – help them make this work.

 

And that made me think, okay, I've got to get them doing these things. It's just that little push that sometimes we need to make something happen.

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Torgerson (narrating): “Disease as teacher” they say in the chronic illness world. Howie's diagnosis not only jumpstarted regular family meetings and the process of transitioning the farm and ranch to Andrea and Wyatt. It gave him a new outlook on life. 

 

Hammond: When you deal with something like this, the first thing you got to do is look around and be thankful for everything. You start to appreciate everything that you've been fortunate with and all the opportunities you've got, because a lot of things could have went different. And just, I think having the first diagnosis and getting rid of that, it's pretty hard to have a bad day.

 

You know, when you think about two years ago, I should have been gone or could have been, and how would we have taken care of all the things we've had the opportunity to take care of? And I, you know, I don't have any pain with it. It's sometimes the frustration of not being able to do things, but people are great.

 

You know, I mean, everybody tries to help you. And I've got a van. I can take my wheelchair and go somewhere, and sometimes my lift gets stuck, and I just asked somebody, “can you help me with this? I need to reset that, or…” And there's always people looking to help.

 

I just think that I have a real respect for the goodness of people you know, and am really empathetic with people that need help. And I think that, you know, being on the farm and not being able to do things sometimes makes you look at things a little differently. So you appreciate all these different people that work that.

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You know, they're all learning, too, because I have to learn new ways to just close a gate so, I'm a little more patient, probably, than I ever would have been if I hadn't gone through this. Which probably is good for all the guys that are out there! But, yeah, you know, I guess it's just one of those things that I think is –  in a lot of ways – it's a blessing.  

 

Torgerson (narrating): Despite his condition, Howie puts 10,000 miles a year on his side-by-side moving cows around and checking on water sources in pastures during summer. When he started handing over the reins to Andrea, they had time to work side by side again, just like when Andrea was growing up and still living at home.

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Do you have a farm or ranch succession story you'd like to share with us? Call  ‪(406) 219-7465‬ and leave a voicemail to share either your family's experience with succession or reflections you have on the stories you’ve heard this season.

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Torgerson (narrating): For the rest of the episode, we’re going to dig deep into the Hammonds’ succession process. We’ll look at Andrea and Howie’s ideas for the ranch’s future, and how at the beginning they learned to combine Howie’s experience with Andrea’s muscle to work as a team. 

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Lien: I said to Dad, I think you and I together could be one person helping because I don't know how to do everything and I'm nervous to do it by myself. You know, I'm still a little scared of these mama cows that are coming at me. And so if we go together, we would just, yeah, go in his ranger together and he would spot everything and then just riding with him and learning what to look for. And then I could get out and actually pick up the calves and bring them in or, get them a bottle, whatever we needed to do. 

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Torgerson (narrating): This is transition in action. It includes the passing down of actual farm and ranch labor responsibilities as well as management decisions and ownership. 

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A succession plan can outline timelines for the transition of tasks like calving or seeding crops to other managers and personel. It can also list out action plans for land use, retirement plans for the outgoing generation, strategies for the transfer of assets to their successors and goals for ongoing constructive communication for all involved, including family who don't work directly in the operation. When the Hammonds got busy making succession plans after Howie's diagnosis, they discussed these details at length. 

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Howie also brought back the question about what future his daughters wanted for their family's farm and ranch.

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Hammond: I wanted to ask each of them specifically if they thought they wanted the farm to continue and the ranch to continue in the family. And they all gave us a definite yes, that they thought that was important to them. So from there, it was easy to go to the next step and say, “do any of you other two girls that aren't on the ranch, do you want to be here? Is this something you want to be a part of?”

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And, you know, the answer was pretty much no, but maybe someday they might have kids that they would hope that they could be around. They didn't know for sure, but given that information, I said, “well, in order to do that, I think you understand that the old saying is that equal isn't always fair.’ And, in order to do that, Wyatt and Andrea, if they're going to operate the farm and ranch business, they're going to have to inherit quite a bit of property.”

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Torgerson (narrating): "Equal isn't fair and fair isn't equal," is something you hear a lot in the farm succession world. It means an inheritance that might be thought of as “fair,” does not always mean an equal distribution of assets. Outside of an agricultural context, this may sound like a parent is playing favorites. But farm succession is not your average American generational transfer of wealth. As Howie shared on the phone with me after our interview:

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Hammond:  I think that the outside investment in real estate has driven the prices to the point where it's almost impossible to pay for the land by farming and ranching. When I started out, I was able to sit down and put on paper how I could make the payments just by what I was expecting with normal crops. 

 

The numbers that we see for the cost of an acre of land, now, the risk becomes so much greater.  It's been a gradual change, but I would say in the last 10 to 20 years, there's been a lot more out-of-state investment in the land that's near us.

 

Torgerson (narrating): When you consider the capital that is needed to make it in farming today, if a parent were to divide up their assets equally, the ones taking it over wouldn’t have the funds to buy out their off-farm siblings. Everyone in the family needs to embrace this reality for a plan to succeed. That is why communication is the most foundational element to a promising succession plan. 

 

Lien: I don't think that any of us feel like us saying we want to take over and continue the farm and ranch is some kind of a big cash cow because we all know that it's hopefully something you're just passing on to your generation and you can just survive and you can make a living and have the farm and ranch survive.

 

Nobody looks at that and as, “oh, it's worth this much,” because nobody plans on selling it.

 

So if you want to continue it and keep having succession planning in the future then you're not looking at numbers on a paper equal to something else. It is you're willing to take this on and you're willing to try to keep this alive for you know, the next generation. It might be worth this much on paper, but unless you sell it, you don't ever see that. So if that's not the plan, then you can't look at numbers as equals. It's not going to be an equal three way. It's going to be, you're going to take on this job. 

 

Torgerson (narrating): In their planning conversations, "fair" for the Hammonds means considering the needs of the farm and ranch first.

 

Hammond: I always say everybody has to have a voice, but the ranch has to speak the loudest. And I've told the kids that. If that's what we're going to do, everybody has a say, but we have to, if we're going to keep this ranch going, it's got the most say. And what it takes to make it go, then some of us aren't going to get everything we want. 

 

Lien: Dad always said, if we want the farm to continue, the farm has to come first in the decisions. It's not one kid coming first. It is, the farm has to be able to make it. Because if we do something, like split it three ways, we're just gonna set you up for failure. The farm will not be able to last. You know, you can't afford to just go buy it, and start all over with the prices of everything now and input costs everything.

 

I mean, the price of grain might be the same as it was 30 years ago, but everything else costs quite a bit more. So trying to make it work is a big part of it. And that I think was important to him. If we are going to make these decisions to put the farm first and make sure the farm can make it, then everybody had to be on the same page.

 

Torgerson (narrating): Once Howie and JoAnn's girls reconfirmed their decision to put the farm first, they organized a series of meetings with their accountant and attorney. First with just Howie and JoAnn, then with Andrea and Wyatt and finally the whole family was invited in.

 

Lien: Yeah, mom and dad basically had their plan and Wyatt and I came to the first few meetings because we were the on-farm kids that were going to be the next generation, so it was how do we make the farm last, how can we pass this on without, setting them up for failure, or how taxes would affect it? Why we would have to do it this way? You know, depending on one passing away or the, other or both.

 

I mean, it was even down to like, if five of you were all in a plane crash together, then where does it go? I mean, we have every scenario under the sun. We went through all of it.

 

Torgerson (narrating): At the heart of it, succession is about contending with death. In the U.S. we distance ourselves from death, dying and grief. We don’t talk about death. Most people die in sterile hospital rooms. And only five states require mandatory bereavement leave for employees, meaning there’s an expectation to move on quickly with minimal self-care or ritual. 

 

Farm and ranch families don’t carry the same cultural taboos around death as the average American though. We confront death regularly, whether it’s through farm accidents, livestock predation, subsistence hunting or the cycles that bring an end to an animal’s lives. 

 

The families in this season who have started succession planning are not pretending like no one is going to die. In fact they feel closer and better cared for because of their willingness to confront this upsetting topic. The producers who are at greater risk of losing their farms, are the ones who think they’re going to live forever or who have blinders on and aren’t thinking about the future of those around them. This, of course, is not the case for the Hammonds.

 

Lien: So everyone was very aware. There's no question of what the plan is, or how the succession would happen depending on all scenarios. Even though my dad had this diagnosis, you never know, you know. And they would say, they could die in a car accident tomorrow. So we are going over every scenario and we went over it together kind of as the farm, and then included my sisters and their families to understand how they fit into this because they had already said they didn't want to take over the farm together or do a partnership.

 

So it was then all of us together hearing what the succession was going to be, what it was going to look like, how everybody fit into it, and then deciding if everybody was okay with the plan.

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Torgerson: And it sounds like everyone was pretty agreeable?

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Lien: I feel like, all of us are educated. We all have business degrees. All understand we want the business to continue, that the business is its own thing and that's the most important part of this succession planning. And mom and dad have done a great job of planning things ahead of time with life insurance and other opportunities for off-farm kids that made it – I think to all three of us fair and that we were all on the same page. 

 

Torgerson (narrating): Andrea's two sisters Aimee and Ashley aren't joining Andrea in taking over the farm, but they are still involved. Their kids work on the ranch in the summertime and have 4-H steers they keep there. And both sisters still work in agriculture and are a vital asset  to their family's operation.

 

Lien: My oldest sister and my brother in law, they own the insurance agency in town. So they do all the crop insurance, everything. We're working with them every year to do it. So, and yeah, she understands all of it and she's a huge help for us in that area. And then my other sister works at the bank where we do all of our banking, so they're super helpful and involved and aware of the farm. And then, they all have land. So we will lease land from them, so that will always be a conversation of prices and how things are and what's affordable and how we make this work and their part in that.

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Torgerson (narrating): When Andrea's parents pass away, Andrea and Wyatt will receive the majority of the land to continue the operation. But in addition to life insurance, Andrea's sisters will also inherit a few pieces of cropland on the fringes of their farm that Andrea and Wyatt will lease from them. 

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In my own family, since my sisters and I aren't running our farm and ranch, after our parents pass, our land which is held within the legal structure of a trust, will be owned equally by the four of us. We will become the trustees and our succession plan is to continue leasing the land out to local farmers like my cousin Jacob, who has farmed most of our land since my dad retired in 2022.

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This type of casual talk around inheritance, aging and transition is becoming more comfortable for farm and ranch families. It wasn't always this way. We'll hear more about the reticent generation that came before in another episode this season.

 

The Hammonds’ story proves that having hard conversations can keep farms in the hands of families. Proactive and sustained conversation eliminates surprises, helps siblings stay connected after their parents pass and it's absolutely necessary to ensure the successful transfer of farms and ranches to the next generation.

 

But even with good communication and a plan, the switch to running your family's farm and ranch can be a big one.

 

Torgerson: Going back to your succession planning process, what were kind of your greatest fears as your family was starting to do that planning? 

 

Lien: For me, my greatest fear was: How can we do this? Can we do this? Is this something that we're going to be able to keep up with? It's kind of a daunting task to think about. It's a lot of work. It's pretty risky. You know, you're depending on weather and interest rates, and marketing and so many things that are out of your control to feel like this is a big undertaking.

 

Yeah, just, not wanting to fail, I guess. And you see a lot of places selling. You see families that don't have anyone that wants to come back, so they have no choice but to sell. Or they do come back and it's not working, and they have to sell. So, there's a lot of scary things that keep you up at night, I guess, that go along with agriculture and farming and ranching and trying to make a place work.

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Torgerson (narrating): The Hammonds have a lot going on in their operation. Howie, Andrea and Wyatt have debated over whether there's too much going on. I think it'll be the biggest question for the incoming generation to address. 

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Hammond: One of the things I struggle with right now is, we are diversified and you know, we seed close to 7, 000 acres every year in crop. And I think we've got 875 cows to calve, 300 yearlings. So the operations, it's got a lot of stuff going on. And I keep looking at these operations, the successful ones, and talking to people, I often wonder if the diversification at a certain point as you get bigger, isn't a handicap.

 

I've talked to Wyatt about, I wonder if we should be all cows or all crops and be bigger. You know, I’ve got friends or acquaintances now that are cropping 15,000 and 20,000 acres in Eastern Montana. And I know people that are, you know, they're up to 1,500, 2,000 cow ranches. But they're pretty much, that's their business.

 

And they actually have a time that there isn't always something to do. I mean, there's always something to do. But, you know, when you're trying to get the crop in, and you've got to go take care of a cow, or several cows, or move pairs out – it really complicates things.

 

Torgerson (narrating): When I asked Andrea how she feels about the future, her response was different.

 

Torgerson: You guys have such a big operation with so much going on, and one thing your dad said was like, you know, I don't know if it would be beneficial to just simplify, just because you have so much farm and ranch, like, do you feel like you share the same vision for your farm as your da? Or how do you see it continuing on years from now? 

 

Lien: It's kind of a hard question, because you hear that if you're not growing, you're dying. But at some point, we've grown so much since Wyatt and I moved back. Wyatt will say that quite a few times. You know, we have twice as many cows as we did when we moved here. And we have twice as much farmland and the same facilities for calving. And you know, we're trying. We're doing what we can with growing.

 

But it's also to the point of how do we get all this work done and how do you keep enough people to get the work done? I think for Wyatt and my dad too probably, it's really important to do a good job at it, instead of just growing and getting by. They really pride themselves in doing a good job with the farming and having, you know, a good herd of cows and caring about the quality.

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So I feel like we're probably to a point where I don't know how much more we could grow anyway and keep it an operation like it is. So I think now we're at the point of managing the operation size that we've gotten to, and doing a good job of what we have and sustaining because growing seems a little scary right now.

 

Torgerson (narrating): Howie has told Andrea to think of the farm as a business. To do the best she can and not worry about passing it down to the next generation. 

 

But a farm isn't any old business. It's deep coulees you ride your horse far enough into, until you feel like you're the only person in the world. It's mule deer foraging along Big Cottonwood Creek, tan fur against tan bark in a world of winter white. It's brandings and roundups, a veil of dirt that pales the view of turning cattle, and neighbors hollering on horseback. It's dry years and hail storms that have you petitioning God for a better year next year. It's a bumper barley crop and a cluster of stalks in a vast panorama you measure your growing children against. 

 

At the end of the day, it's a shelter from the elements to slough off your work boots, ring in Christmas after the cows have been fed, or play a round of cribbage when the rain you've been praying for at long last reaches the hardpacked Hi-Line. 

 

Lien: I feel so much more worried about being the generation that loses the place or that has to sell the place. And Dad always has said that's not something I ever worry about, you're gonna do the best you can when that's your job, and you never know what circumstances are gonna happen, but it's not this burden over you that you are responsible to keep this in the family forever, or to never make a decision that's going to make the farm not last for hundreds of years.

 

So it's nice to feel that, but I do, I feel that. But probably because I grew up there and my mom and dad didn't. My mom and dad bought the place when my oldest sister was one years old. So for them, it was starting with nothing, going out and buying this place on your own and being able to make that last for your lifetime and your job to support your family through keeping the place profitable.

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Torgerson: As the one to continue farming and ranching, you're stepping into that role of, like, maintaining that identity for your whole family in a way too. So I'm sure, even though your parents have kind of taken that pressure off of you, that you still probably feel it yourself. 

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Lien: Yeah, I do. Because to me, I feel like that is my parents’ place. 

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Torgerson (narrating): Though Howie has told Andrea not to worry about keeping the farm in the family forever, it’s not just because he wants to ease the pressure off his daughter. He has a different outlook on his tenure on the land. 

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Back with Howie, I ask what he’d like his predecessors to know about his time on here.

 

Torgerson: What is something that you would like future generations of your family to know about your work stewarding your family's ranch?

 

Hammond: I guess to be really honest with you, when JoAnn and I started out, we always considered it a business. We never felt like we were building a legacy for a family. We took on a challenge, and I think that maybe with a little bit of a chip on our shoulder because everybody said we shouldn't, or we couldn't, and we wanted to be on our own.

 

We never had that attitude, but we were very determined that we wanted to be able to make it. You know, I guess, I hope that our kids are, and our grandkids, that they're good people. And that they take care of the land. 

 

It's a kind of interesting, when you think back all of a sudden here, it's been, uh, what, 45 years now since we bought the place and you know, we have quite a few dinosaurs that have been found on our property and they tell me that they were there 77 million years ago. So we've been there 45. When you put all that into perspective and you think about the time. You know, we're just kind of there to to take care of the land for a very, very, very short time. 

 

The land isn't necessarily our legacy and I hope taking care of it was. And that we raised, you know, kids that are good people that learn to work hard and do what's right by other people and work hard to be successful. And, you know, in the meantime, contribute to their community and do good things. I guess that's more of what I think of.

 

I don't expect the ranch, whether it's where it is or hundreds of miles away from there, the land itself isn't the main part of it. It's the people, you know, that are there. 

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Torgerson (narrating): Looking around Howie’s office you can see marks of these people. People like Howie’s dad who made a pact with God to use his life in service of others when he was shot down in WWII. People like Andrea and her sisters, forever young, pictured together in the field with their dad, at horse shows, on family ski trips and at weddings. People like Howie and his wife JoAnn, Wyatt, Andrea and their two growing girls, who stand proud together in front of the combine on a late dusty evening during Howie’s last season helping with harvest.

 

Lien:  That picture is, harvest of 2021, and so Wyatt is in one combine and my dad's in the other combine cutting one of the best crops together. And yeah, we had a lift on that combine for my dad so he could get up there and I'm guessing that's probably the last harvest that he was in the combine cutting. 

 

It was one of those years when you're just so proud of your crop that you want to take those pictures because you know, most of the time it's “next year country.” So when you have a big crop, it's, you know, something to be excited about.

 

Torgerson (narrating): The Hammond family doesn’t know how many harvests Howie has left to see. For now Andrea and Howie are a mighty father-daughter duo building on a legacy of doing right by the land while inspiring others to do the same.

 

This episode of Reframing Rural was written, reported and produced by me, Megan Torgerson with help from our story editor, Mary Auld, and associate producer Madeline Jorden. Music and audio engineering was by Aaron Spieldenner and Sean Dwyer of Hazy Bay Music with additional music by Skyler Mehal and Chandra Johnson. This season of Reframing Rural is made in collaboration with Winnett ACES, with funding and support from the Plank Stewardship Initiative, World Wildlife Fund, Headwaters Foundation, American Farmland Trust, the Department of Public Transformation and listeners like you. If you know someone who is going through succession planning or who loves a good family agriculture story, please share today’s story with them. To find out more about season four of Reframing Rural, Succession Stories, and past seasons, visit reframingrural.org