The University of Kentucky Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment and Cooperative Extension Service will host the Kentucky Farm Succession Seminar: Building the Bridge to Your Farm’s Future from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. CDT,  July 23, 2025, at the Owensboro Convention Center.

With support from the Kentucky Agricultural Development Fund, the Kentucky Farm Succession Seminar will bring national, state and local experts to help farm families prepare for the future and handle challenges in sustaining the farm business and protecting valuable farmland.

Farmland preservation and farm transitions were identified as the most critical issues facing Kentucky agriculture in the recent Strategic Roadmap for Kentucky Agriculture: 2025-2030. The need to keep farms and farmland in operation was made evident by the most recent Census of Agriculture, which reported Kentucky’s loss of 500,000 farm acres and more than 6,000 farms from 2017 to 2022.

"Farmland continues to be sold and developed at an alarming rate, and that is in part due to farm families not having a clear vision of how to allow the next generation to continue the operation," said Clint Hardy, agriculture and natural resources agent for the Daviess County Cooperative Extension Service and seminar coordinator. "While age and health challenges are inevitable, farm families can also experience divorce, prolonged production losses or the stress of workforce shortages. It is more important than ever to encourage these conversations long before a health, family or financial issue arises."

Speakers include Successful Farming columnist Jolene Brown, UK farm management specialist and extension professor Steve Isaacs, Kentucky Farmland Transition Initiative coordinator Aleta Botts and University of Missouri farm and ranch transition specialist Wesley Tucker. Estate law, farm business management and financial advisors are also scheduled for an advisory panel discussion.

“Farm transition is the one absolute, unavoidable task facing every farm family," Isaacs said. “It can be done well or poorly. That’s up to the family.”

The cost to attend the seminar is $35-40 per person, depending on payment method. Registration is required, and lunch will be provided. Contact the Daviess County Cooperative Extension Service at 270-685-8480, or visit https://www.ca.uky.edu/event/kentucky-farm-succession-seminar for more information.

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Writer: Jennifer Elwell, jennifer.elwell@uky.edu  

The Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment is an Equal Opportunity Organization with respect to education and employment and authorization to provide research, education information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function without regard to economic or social status and will not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ethnic origin, national origin, creed, religion, political belief, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, marital status, genetic information, age, veteran status, physical or mental disability or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity.