Do You Want Your Farm to Be a Legacy — or Just a Final Payday?

There’s a cold, hard question every farm family needs to ask:

Do you want the farm to be a legacy… or just one last big piggy bank you cash out to the kids?

Because let’s be real: if you’re the one in control right now, you hold the cards. You can structure things however you want. You can burn it all down or build something that lasts. That’s your decision. But you can’t do both.

Too many farm operators are riding into their later years thinking more acres equals more success. Chasing ground. Pushing expansion. But no one's talking about what happens after the chase.

The Harsh Truth About Cash Flow

You might love farming more acres. You might get a thrill from growing the operation. But let’s talk numbers…

Cash flow from grain farming?
It’s not that good. And it’s not getting better.

I said this back in 2019 at a young farmer convention in Montana. I was in a side session with a group of college grads, all excited about building their futures.

So I asked them:

“How many of you want to own ground one day?”

Every hand went up.

“How many of you think you’ll pay that ground off?”

Again, every hand shot up.

And then I hit them with reality:

“Your probability is less than 5%.”

One kid pushed back:
“What do you mean? It’ll be a 20-year note. I’ll pay it off.”

Okay, great. But what happens the first time you lose $200,000?

You’ll refinance the ground.
Stretch the payments.
Try to free up more cash flow.

And that, right there, is the problem I want to stop.

Legacy Requires Discipline

You can’t build a legacy farm on refinance strategies and emotional decisions. The numbers have to guide you—not your pride. Not your need to “farm like Dad did.” Not your ego.

So again: What do you want this farm to be?

A legacy that lasts for generations?
Or a final payout that dies with you?

The choice is yours. But the clock’s ticking.