The Largest Farmland Transfer in Generations is Underway

A massive shift is reshaping American agriculture as trillions of dollars in U.S. farmland changes hands over the coming years — the largest farmland transfer in generations. In this episode, we sit down with Paul Schadegg, President of Farmers National Company, to unpack what’s driving this historic transition, why so much land is moving now as aging landowners retire, and how a growing share of off-farm heirs is changing who owns and manages America’s farmland.

Subscribe To “Broadcast Retirement Network” On YouTube For Aging, Finance, Lifestyle, Privacy, Retirement, and Wellness programming Monday through Sunday at 7:30 AM ET.

Transcript:

Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network

Well, Paul, it’s so great to meet you. Thanks for joining us in the program this morning.

Paul Shadegg, President, Farmers National Company

Thanks for having me, Jeff, appreciate it.

Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network

And I really love your background. I love your company name, but I love your background. This is a very pivotal time, in terms of America’s farmers.

There’s a lot of wealth transfer and a lot of people, a lot of farms that will change hands over the next several decades.

Paul Shadegg, President, Farmers National Company

Yeah, that’s right, Jeffrey. We’ve been talking about this generational transfer of wealth for a long time. I think back into the nineties when we started talking about it and it’s really coming to fruition in today’s market.

Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network

And America’s, I got it, you’re in Omaha, Nebraska, beautiful part of the country and farmers are such an important part of America. I mean, they produce our cattle, they produce all the food we eat, literally mostly comes from the farmers. So let me ask you first, how are farmers doing given all the circumstances that are going on in the world, but also here in the States?

Paul Shadegg, President, Farmers National Company

Yeah, they’re certainly facing some economic struggles. A lot of that is from depressed commodity markets. And the other side of that is that expenses have risen substantially over the past five years.

So overall, when you talk about, when you ask the Federal Reserve, when they survey the banks across the Midwest, how are people in ag doing? There’s certainly some stress, but surprisingly not as much as you would anticipate. I think a lot of that just boils down to how resilient people in agriculture are.

And when you look at the land market, that really resonates there also that those land values that have been established over the past five, six years are pretty steady because of that resilience.

Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network

Well, it’s really good to hear, especially when they’re putting, that we depend on them to put food on the table and provide here for everyone else on the East Coast, West Coast, whatever coast you’re on, you’re getting food from the farmers. So Paul, let me ask you about this wealth transfer. Can you boil it down into maybe the percentage of farms and also the size of the land in terms of what potentially could transfer over the next several decades?

Paul Shadegg, President, Farmers National Company

Yeah, when we talk about what, and I mean, a lot of this is based on assumptions. In fact, when we look back at the assumption that we were gonna have, but when I talked about in the nineties, this generational transfer of wealth, a generational transfer of land, we ask ourselves, why did that not happen back in the nineties when they anticipated it would? It’s because of the assumptions.

A lot of the economists assumed that a farmer would retire at 65 or 63, whatever it was back in at that time. And that didn’t happen. A lot of those producers are still working today into their seventies and eighties.

Some of that land didn’t transfer because people saw over the past 25 years that appreciation and value, and that it’s a very valuable asset that looked good in their portfolio. So a lot of that land didn’t transfer because of that. And so those are a couple of the dynamics where the average age of today’s farmer is 60 plus, the average age of today’s ag landowner is 65 plus.

So those factors played into it back in the nineties. And that’s why we’re starting to see that transfer begin to happen now, because it’s inevitable. We’ve kind of reached a pinch point where the age is going to press the issue.

And you asked about the amount of land that we’re talking about. We’re talking somewhere around 150 million acres. And again, those are based on assumptions, which is roughly 40% of the ag land in the US.

Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network

So it is a sizable amount of land, a sizable amount of farms. Let me ask you what I think is a pretty basic question. Are our farmers, those maybe at age 65 or older, are they prepared to transfer their farm, their wealth to a successor or a group of successors?

A lot of these farmers probably have had this land and this farm in their families for generations.

Paul Shadegg, President, Farmers National Company

Yeah, and if you had asked me that question 25 years ago, I would have been a resounding no.

Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network

Okay.

Paul Shadegg, President, Farmers National Company

But we’ve been a little more sophisticated in how we own the structure that land is owned under. So I would say we’re still not where you’d want to be with having what I call a plan. And so when a landowner says, what should I think about first?

What is most important? You need to have a plan. And what happens is once you have that plan, a succession plan or an estate plan will help you identify what risks are out there and then how to minimize those risks, whether that’s tax obligations, whether that is identifying who your heirs will be and maybe what structure it needs to move to before that all happens.

Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network

So it sounds, you know, I’m not from the estate planning world and succession planning and wealth transfer, but it sounds to me that’s pretty complicated, but there’s a lot of probably, you mentioned taxes, there’s land, there’s financial aspects of it. I would imagine you’d probably want to speak with a professional. If you were in that situation, you wanted to speak with someone who has expertise and experience in doing these types of plans.

You don’t want to just go online and get AI to write it for you.

Paul Shadegg, President, Farmers National Company

Yeah, absolutely. You hit the nail on the head there with professionals and that kind of plays into the plan. Part of the plan is align yourself with a really qualified team.

So when you talk about who needs to be on that team, a CPA that’s well-versed in land transfers and in agriculture, and then a great estate attorney is very valuable. And then going on down the line, you know, if it’s a asset that you decide you want to retain, but you’re not an active farmer or maybe you don’t understand agriculture, there’s professionals out there like ourselves that can help you with farm and ranch management. If it’s a real estate transaction, there’s many professionals in the agriculture field that understand what the value is of that asset and how, if you decide to sell it or disperse that asset, how to get that done.

Potentially, you know, things like the 1031 exchange to defer some of that tax. You know, and another professional that’s very valuable is establishing a qualified value. So an appraiser, an ag appraiser is very critical.

Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network

So how do I go about, well, let me back up and say, does it matter? You’re in Nebraska, I’m in Charlotte. I think in North Carolina, there must be farmers here, although I haven’t been on a farm in quite some time.

I grew up in Maryland. I know we have farms there. Does it matter when you’re planning this estate plan?

Does it matter the jurisdiction where you live? Like, so the county and the state, or are the rules the same regardless of where you live?

Paul Shadegg, President, Farmers National Company

They can be quite diverse from state to state. There are certain states that have some commonalities, but overall, you’ll definitely want to align yourself with someone local to that area, for sure within the state, so that all the state guidelines, and when I talk about those risks, a lot of that tax can be generated from the state level, not just the federal level. So very critical that you have someone within your geographical area that is qualified CPA, a state attorney.

Yeah, definitely want to be in that regional area.

Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network

Yeah, you definitely gotta know the rules, I guess, if you’re gonna write the best, codify the best document. Let me ask you what, and this is a hypothetical. I don’t know how you feel about hypotheticals, but I’m just, I think you’ll find this one pretty easy.

If I don’t have an estate plan, and I’m in a succession plan, and I’m a farmer, what happens? Does it go to probate, like a traditional estate? What happens to my property if I die?

Paul Shadegg, President, Farmers National Company

Yeah, then that’s when it can get quite complicated that can really cause some problems to your heirs, because it most likely will go through probate, and that can vary by state by state, but that’s where having that ahead of time, having that estate attorney is critical.

Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network

And would that cause disruption? Again, I don’t come from the farming world, but if something was being passed in the probate, would it cause disruption to the day-to-day productivity of the farm? Because now you’ve got this entity, this government entity trying to do its review and figure out everything.

I would imagine that there’s different controlling interests. So does it have a disruption to the production?

Paul Shadegg, President, Farmers National Company

Yeah, certainly could, because when you look at the operation of a farm, depending on what lease type, you can have anything from a cash lease arrangement to a crop share arrangement. So if the individual that passed had an interest in that crop and harvested grain that would maybe sit at an elevator or delivery point, and no one has authority to make that sale except maybe a court, then could definitely cause some problems. A lot of times a landowner maybe is paying for part of the cropping inputs.

And so that kind of leaves the operator hanging out there that they may have to pay for those until they can get reimbursed. Yeah, it can get quite complicated in those cases, especially.

Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network

Yeah, it sounds like it. I mean, especially something like a farm that has not only the farm and the property, but also machinery and personnel that work it. I mean, I can only imagine how complicated that would be.

When you’re talking about, I guess every farmer should have a succession plan, but for the younger farmers out there, maybe that are in their 30s or 40s, should they have a plan in place today in the state plan? Because frankly, you don’t know when your day is gonna come.

Paul Shadegg, President, Farmers National Company

Yeah, absolutely. I think that the, what I’ll call that younger generation actually has the most opportunity because they can get it set up right. There’s a lot of tax laws that have changed over the years where there’s some pretty good structures now to if you start off that way, that’s a lot easier than having to go back and switch the way a farm is under ownership or how you’ve collected income, things like that.

Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network

And again, I’m coming at this not as a farmer, but more as a financial services person with that background. I know with most personal states, you can revisit those from time to time. I would imagine you can do that with your professional team as well.

So even though you lock it in an age 40 or age 50, or even age 65, you can come back and revisit things if circumstances change. Is that correct?

Paul Shadegg, President, Farmers National Company

Yeah, that’s still the case. And we find a lot of our clients do that because life happens. And so you need to be able to make those changes as you go.

And sometimes life happens on both sides. And so you might have a new grandson that you wanna make sure inherits part of your farm. And so you might wanna go back and revise your trust and make sure that they’re going to share in that also.

So yeah, we see it both ways. And that’s the beauty of some of these structures that you can make changes as you go.

Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network

Yeah, well, you gotta make sure you dot your I’s, cross your T’s. Farmers, as we’ve talked about, are so important. They’re critical for America.

And they have been since the country’s inception. Gotta take care of your farm, gotta take care of your heirs. Paul, we’re gonna have to leave it there.

Thank you so much for joining us. And we look forward to having you back on the program again very soon, sir.

Paul Shadegg, President, Farmers National Company

Thank you, Jeffrey.

This story was originally published by TheStreet on Aug 29, 2026, where it first appeared in the Retirement section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.