Retirement and succession plans
Successful?
Missing a good relationship with parents
and financial burdens following parents’ retirement
concerned successors as they assessed the success of their succession.
More men than women believed that their retirement plans would be successful. The women were hesitant about predicting absolute success and this hesitancy was frequently linked with perceptions of a depressed agricultural economy and ‘negative’ government policies. Successors were less definite than their fathers about the success of their succession plans rating them from ‘somewhat’ to ‘very successful’. Successor women, like the women of the older generation, were also more guarded in their responses about predicting the success of their succession plans. Missing a good relationship with their parents and financial burdens following their parents’ retirement were of equal concern to the successors as they assessed the success of their succession.
The exit
Retirement and succession creates ambivalences, not wanting to give up and the emotional need to ensure the continuance of the farm within the family, the need to take over ownership and responsibility and the regret and feelings of loss at the departure of parents. These ambivalences are never more evident than when the retiring generation begins preparation for the move off the farm.
Missing the farm can mean the very personal loss
of the spiritual dimension of the land and its stewardship.
Marginally more women than men were looking forward to retiring from the farm even although they reported fears of ‘missing the farm’ once they had retired. Women described the ‘wrench’ of leaving their farms, their gardens and the district and of missing ‘the wide open spaces and the animals’. However these women were also looking forward to pursuing a range of new activities. For them retirement offered the ‘freedom to do other things’. More women than men were concerned about a lack of finances in retirement. Men generally did not give specific reasons anticipating retirement but they did identify a cluster of retirement ‘fears’ like urban life, boredom and losing position, status and power. When asked what they were not looking forward to about leaving the farm most reported no longer being able to ‘walk the paddocks’. Missing the farm for both men and women can also mean the very personal loss of the spiritual dimension of the land and its stewardship.
Contact for Enquiries
Rural Affairs Coordinator
Sector Performance Policy
MAF Policy
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
PO Box 2526
Wellington
NEW ZEALAND
Phone: +64 4 894 0675
Fax: +64 4 4 894 0745
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