Futures

West Blue Farm

Dave Welsh with Trevor Spath from Waverly High School

About: In 1978 Dave and Deb Welsh began farming in Milford, Nebraska. They currently have 800 acres of organically certified row crops (corn, soybeans, wheat, oats, and alfalfa) along with a 30-40 head cow/calf operation and direct marketing of hogs and ~4,000 broilers. When Dave and Deb's children decided to go into professions outside of farming, they were left to find an alternative solution to pass on the farm.

Website/Contact:

http://www.westbluefarm.com/
dwelsch@westbluefarm.com

Objectives:

To explore the concept of Land Linking (Check out the Center for Rural Affairs Land Link program http://www.cfra.org/landlink)
To consider the future of farms and farming as a profession in the Midwest
To investigate solutions for continuing a farming operation when the next generation of family members aren't interested

Discussion Questions:

Other than family members, who might farmers choose to "inherit" their operation? How will they choose these individuals?
What difficulties might arise from non-familial land transition agreements? What benefits?
What's the best way to approach a discussion on the next generation of farmers?
What are the demographics of current farmers? What kind of impact will this have on future generations?
How would you measure the sustainability of West Blue Farm? What could be improved?