Philip Guscott Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
Philip Guscott has been advising sheep and beef farmers how to avoid rifts, tears and heartbreak over the future of the family farm for 35 years.
The easiest thing to do when you've got a difficult decision to make is not to make it and that's hard on the younger generation, he says.
"You must think about it when you buy the farm not when you're thinking about selling it because you need the 30 years in between times to get it together."
"I'm not sure how many families I've helped, about two or three hundred," he says looking out over the valley his family has been farming for six generations.
As the average age of farmers increases and many are seeking to retire, sorting out farm succession is becoming a growing problem.
Census figures show beef and deer farmers are generally older than dairy farmers.
Philip Guscott says the issue is becoming more marked with more Baby Boomer farmers approaching retirement.
He says successful succession comes down to some basic concepts including understanding that "people come and go but the land remains".
"If it's a generational farm ... you are a tenant of the land for a time and not actually the owner of it, so if you take the view that the capital that is tied up in that piece is actually not really yours, well then it actually makes the numbers and the ability to think about what you should do much easier."
Philip says the economics of sheep and beef farming means the farm can't be split equally among offspring.
"Everybody thinks that fair is equal but in farming, equal's not fair."
Straight talking is also fundamental to reducing problems over succession.
"The last thing you need is a father standing up there saying the farm's worth five million dollars when all the kids know it's worth ten [million] because that only makes those that are not getting as much as they think that they should, think that the figures are all jacked."
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