Jim Hamilton: “There comes a time on all of these ranches when the transition from one generation to the next must be made. Sometimes the process goes easy and sometimes it can be difficult. Sometimes it can be extremely difficult.” 

Russ Torgerson: “I’ve spent my whole life putting it together, and I don’t want to dwindle it away, I mean I want to give whoever an opportunity to carry it forward if they would want to.”

 
Rusty Ellis: “And if these kids are going to have a shot and be able to move forward with this industry and the security of arguably the nation and its food supply, we have to be able to leave the asset from the current generation to the next, and there has to be enough there that they have the ability to carry the flag forward.” 

Megan Torgerson (narrating): A ranch is something to hold tight to, to faithfully care for, to hand down. 

Succession is how families decide who will carry a farm and ranch into its next chapter. But it’s far more than a plan. Succession means a rancher’s identity will continue, a farmer will keep her job, land will be saved from a developer and rural communities will thrive. 

In the world of agriculture, succession can either be a scary word, or an invitation to participate in a ritual of transition. Of ensuring a place passes from one generation to the next. Of rearing kids who turn into adults, then allowing them to become the leaders.

I’m Megan Torgerson and this is Reframing Rural, Season 4: Succession Stories.

Over the next few months, we’ll hear from five families from across my home state of Montana who are intentionally building a prosperous future for all generations involved. 

Families like the Hammonds, farmers and ranchers from Malta, who were forced into succession planning when a medical diagnosis upended their vision of the future:

Andrea Lien:  We never really had the discussion of how does this work? Are we all three gonna own the farm equally, or we, 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. 

Howie 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 make this, help them make this work it's just that little push that sometimes we need to make something happen.

Torgerson (narrating): We’ll hear from Gene Curry from Valier, who wants more than to keep his farm and ranch in the family. He wants his kids to remain friends after he’s gone. 

Gene Curry:  We want our children to be able to sit down at the Christmas dinner table together and enjoy each other's company and be able to, you know, have a wonderful time together and not be concerned over who got the best end of the operation or how mom and dad's estate's gonna be split.

Torgerson (narrating): Rancher Sig Pugrud from Winnett, will upend the archiac idea that sons are the only ones capable of taking over a farm or ranch:

Sig Pugrud: While I was still in my twenties, but I'd been back at the ranch working for a few years and I had my ag degree and all of that. There was a time where my folks and I had gone to visit my oldest brother, and I was really shocked because in the midst of a conversation, my dad asked my oldest brother if he ever had any intention of trying to come back to the ranch. And I was speechless. I mean, I was, I was so shocked at the question, and much to my oldest brother's credit, he just looked at dad and he said, I kind of looks to me like six, kind of got this idea. You know, she's the one that's got the interest. And my brothers over the years, basically felt I earned it.

Torgerson (narrating): In Ekalaka, we’ll get to know the Bruskis, a young ranching family that is stepping into management, not to do things exactly as they were done before, but to improve the health of the ecosystem and their bottom line.

Ryan Bruski:   Like, you go walk on this and it's like. It doesn't feel hard. It's like you're walking on cushion, you know, cushion.

Abbey Bruski: It's not like it's, yeah, it, it's really cool to, and there's a lot of birds here with them. I can hear a lot of birds right now too, but they love it. 

 

Torgerson (narrating): And from Jake and Dena Fritz, farmers, ranchers and auctioneers, in Chester, we’ll discover what it takes to bring in the third generation when grandpa is still hanging on.

Jake Fritz: Alright, we’ve got a 9600 John Deere here, who’ll give me $25,000.  Some old piece of equipment you could conjure from your mind.  Alright, we got, 25. Then now 25, 25, 30, 30, 35. 35, 35, 35. 35, 35, 40, 40, 45. Hit 45. Then now 45. 45 50. 50 50. Now hold out 45,000.

Dena Fritz: In this household, it's faith, family, farming. You know, faith is always first, but you've got to remember farming actually does come before the farm.

Torgerson (narrating): Join us in November for Season Four of Reframing Rural: Succession Stories. 
Succession Stories is created in collaboration with the rancher-led nonprofit Winnett ACES and supported by the Plank Stewardship Initiative, World Wildlife Fund, Headwaters Foundation, American Farmland Trust and listeners like you. Follow along wherever you get your podcasts.