When Parents And Children Clash

Parent and child can work together on the farm, love each other, state their needs, be heard and learn to negotiate their differences. It starts with respect and compromise, says Trevor Dickinson.

- Trevor Dickinson

Long gone are the times when it could be taken for granted that only sons would follow in their fathers’ footsteps and take over the family farm. These days, daughters often grow up to play leading roles on the farm. Other families choose to hire from outside the family to ensure that the operation is run by people with the appropriate training and skills.

However, where succession on the farm follows a more traditional pattern, it is not uncommon to see conflict emerge, especially as the next generation starts to have families of their own.

When children return to the farm to join the family business, conflict can often arise between the older generation and the younger one – the latter will be eager to implement what they’ve learnt at college or university, and to modernise the way the farm is run by implementing new technologies that may not be familiar to the previous generation.