RETIREMENT AND SUCCESSION IN
FARM FAMILIES IN NEW ZEALAND
(SOUTH ISLAND)
MAF Policy Technical Paper 94/7
ISSN: 1171-4662
ISBN: 0-478-07356-9
Report to MAF Policy by
Norah C. Keating1
Heather McCrostie Little2
February 1994
1Professor, Department of Human Ecology
3-38 Assiniboia Hall, University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6G 2E7
Fax: 403 492 7527, Telephone: 403 492 5771
E-mail: nkeating @vm.ucs
2 Runs Consultancy Ltd,
Cust, North Canterbury, New Zealand
Telephone: 03 312 5549
FOREWORD
A fundamental aim of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries is to provide policy advice to the Government, and information to farm business and the agricultural industries, which will ensure an agricultural sector that is confident, profitable and self-reliant. In-depth research is needed for developing this policy, and while MAF (and the farming public) has access to a rich source of information on many of the technical issues facing farming industries, analyses of the human aspects of farming, and particularly of how families and individuals conduct their agricultural businesses, are scarce. Because social factors have a critical impact on the management, economic and physical viability and sustainability of farm operations, MAF has supported operational research in this area.
The research reported on here is a follow-up to an earlier publication Generations in Farm Families: Transfer of the Family Farm in New Zealand which was financed by MAF and published by Lincoln University as AERU Research Report No.208. The earlier report was undertaken using the methodology of "grounded research" and was carried out by Dr Norah Keating while she was a visiting research scholar at the Agribusiness and Economics Research Unit in 1990, in conjunction with Canterbury consultant Mrs Heather Little. The current study quantifies the findings of the earlier work by using selected sample survey techniques over a wider area of the South Island.
Part of an international study (with the USA and Canada), the focus in this report is on the process of how older farmers retire from business - that is, how farms are handed on from one generation to the next. The study looks at the intra-family relationships and community impacts evolving from these retirement decisions, and is taken from the perspective of the women and men from the older and younger generations. The study fills a wide gap in our knowledge of farm transfers within the generations of the family, and their impact on farm and community viability.
Dr Ann Pomeroy
Manager Rural Affairs
MAF Policy
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Only two names appear as authors on this report. Yet many people contributed their time, skill, knowledge and experience to help bring this project to completion. Others willingly lent technical resources that eased our workload and kept open the line of long-distance communication between New Zealand and Canada that was necessary to maintain throughout the project.
By funding the project, the New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture made our research possible and we wish to record our gratitude for their support.. At the same time we would like to thank Dr Robin Johnson for his interest, encouragement and invaluable advice as the project got underway.
In Canterbury we appreciated our discussions with both Grant McFadden, MAF-Policy and John Greer, Agriculture New Zealand and the assistance they both gave us as we set up the project. Hugh Eaton; also of Agriculture New Zealand, co-ordinated the survey sample across our three research communities and we appreciate both his work for and interest in the project. The ultimate sample selection was the responsibility of Agriculture New Zealand consultants: Peter Hook in Gore, Stuart Ford in Timaru and Geoff Dunham in Rangiora. We thank Dr Ann Pomeroy of MAF Policy for her interest in the project and for providing us with a range of reference material.
The interviews were conducted by a team of four field researchers who underwent three days of intensive training and then spent long hours driving the sometimes tortuous South Island back country roads to meet with farm families. We acknowledge with grateful thanks the dedication and enthusiasm of Kay Pollock, Claire Smith, Jill Stanton and Ruth Todd. Their part in the success of the study was considerable.
The Agribusiness and Economics Research Unit (AERU) at Lincoln University provided secretarial and book keeping support and access to Fax and E-mail facilities - an essential life line throughout the project. But more than that we would wish to thank Ron Sheppard for his support and interest in the project. And we were continually grateful for the presence of Jan Clark who gave so much of her time to transcribing the electronic messages that flew between us, and who typed the report for final publication. As the project progressed, John Fairweather readily made himself available to discuss aspects of the research always providing thoughtful and thought provoking comments. His support was invaluable.
Alison Ivan from the University of Alberta, who had been one of the coders on the Alberta study, spent three months at Lincoln University carrying out the data entry and 'cleaning' data sets. She worked long and hard hours to complete this work in the time we had set. Nancy Stalker, who is a graduate student at the University of Alberta, worked on the preliminary tables. To Agnes Pieracci who typed and formatted the initial report for its journey back to New Zealand, our thanks.
Also at the University of Alberta, Brenda Munro, another colleague from the Alberta Generations study, conducted the data analysis of this massive data set. She worked closely with us to discuss analyses and configured the data set so that we could answer questions we set out to address.
And finally with gratitude and humility we wish to acknowledge the participation of the farm families on whose experiences this study is built. Without them there would have been no research and we would have continued in ignorance of the problems and the pleasures, the stresses and the rewards of family farm retirement and succession. We know how much the field researchers appreciated the warmth of their hospitality and the open hearted manner in which they welcomed our interviewers into their homes.
Our thanks to all the members of the Generations New Zealand team.
| Norah Keating | Heather McCrostie Little |
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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