| Nurturing
family farms
Related
story:
- Keeping it in the family
by
Garry Kranz
Virginia Business
August
2004
Joe
Barlow considers himself lucky. The 76-year-old Suffolk
County farmer did not have to auction off his 500-acre
spread to pay for retirement. Unlike many of his fellow
farmers, Barlow had an heir willing to work the demanding
dawn-to-dusk hours needed to till the soil.
His son, Joseph Barlow Jr., marks the second generation
to run the family farm, which produces mostly cotton
and soybeans. “He was interested in farming from
the time he was little,” the elder Barlow says.
“I didn’t have to push him into it.”
Farms are the quintessential family businesses. Yet
full-time farmers in Virginia, like those in other states,
are dying out. Developers have been snapping up farmland
here for malls, office complexes and upscale subdivisions.
“It can be tough to pass up the sale of a farm
knowing you’ll earn more from interest than you
could from farming,” says Alex White, a Virginia
Tech professor who tracks the state’s agricultural
industry.
Statistics don’t tell the whole story. Virginia
has roughly 49,000 working farms, up slightly from about
45,000 in the early 1990s. Most of the newer farms,
however, are smaller, part-time hobby farms producing
little in the way of marketable products or state revenue.
Agricultural products account for only $2.4 billion
of Virginia’s $273 billion in gross state product,
or about 1 percent, according to the federal Bureau
of Economic Analysis.
Farmers, perhaps more than other family business owners,
resist planning to ensure an orderly transition of assets
at their death. They often cling to a false sense of
invincibility. Says White: “They don’t like
talking about it. They’d rather spend their time
making plans for next year.”
Barlow made sure that didn’t happen to him. He
incorporated his farming business, excluding the land,
in 1973 – when his son was 13. He has provided
gifts of stock to his son and two daughters, neither
of whom lives on the farm property. But Barlow still
owns the largest asset: the land. “They say they
want to keep it going as long as it’s profitable.”
Virginia must hope to harvest similar good news from
remaining farms in coming years.
Return to Virginia Business - August 2004
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