There is a popular country music song released a couple of years ago by singer Tim McGraw named “Humble and Kind.” If you have never heard it, I urge you to go onto the internet and listen to it. You may be wondering what this song has to do with farm business planning. ‘Neohumility’ In her article, “Neohumility/Humility and Business Leadership: Do they belong together?” Professor Pareena Lawrence examines the commonly accepted and newly emerging ideas of effective leadership, specifically the quality of humility. Troy R. Schneider, U.W. 1998, is a partner with Twohig, Rietbrock, …

Jan. 17, 2018 — Contracting the size of the operation, or downsizing, is often a valuable tactic for businesses in financial trouble. Farms are no different from other businesses in this respect. Selling nonproductive or low productive assets to reduce debt can be the difference between success and failure going forward. Sometimes advance planning can permit a farmer to dispose of such assets before filing a bankruptcy, but much more often, these asset dispositions take place later. The farmer, and even his or her attorney, may have waited until absolutely necessary to consult with reorganization counsel. The farmer may be…

Many attorneys write numerous marital property agreements prior to (or sometimes after) marriage that seek to determine the parties’ economic relationship under Wisconsin’s marital property law. Such marital property agreements are especially important for attorneys who work with farm families wishing to transfer their farms to committed successors. A Need to Educate Today, farms operate with high dollar-value assets, a large debt load, and small net profits. For this reason – and sometimes also for tax reasons – most farm transfers are based primarily on the transfer of “earned equity” to the successors by gift or bargain sale, rather than a sale at…

Farmers and agribusiness are required to follow the revised implements of husbandry or face high fines for overweight or improperly marked equipment. Roberta A. Heckes, Marquette 1999, is a solo practitioner in Adell and Neillsville, primarily serving agriculture and the transportation industry. She also has an active appellate practice. Historically, Wisconsin agricultural equipment operators have operated farm equipment on the highways in a safe and responsible manner. From 2008-2012, accidents involving farm equipment resulted in 16 fatalities (0.62 percent); 314 injuries (0.21 percent); 511 property damage incidents (0.12 percent). Recently, the legislature saw a need to revise the definition…

Making decisions about how to distribute an estate that a client has spent a lifetime accumulating is difficult. When that estate includes a family business in which only some family members are involved, those decisions are more complicated. When that business is a family farm, a business that tends to be heavy on high value but illiquid assets (substantial acres of lands, expensive machinery and equipment, and large numbers of livestock), low on cash flow, and saturated in the sentiment of potentially multiple generations’ worth of blood, sweat, and tears, those decisions can be overwhelming. Bridget Finke, U.W. 2000,…

While some like to say there are too many lawyers in the United States, the fact is only two percent of small law practices are in rural areas, leaving many of the 20 percent of Americans in rural areas without legal help. But those attorneys who are practicing in rural areas are uniquely situated to affect the future of agriculture worldwide, according to an article in a recent of the Drake Journal of Agricultural Law. The journal focuses on contemporary issues in international and domestic agricultural law, and dedicates its spring issue to topics discussed at the Annual American …

Farmland preservation laws have existed in Wisconsin since 1981. Wisconsin’s program, offered through the Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection, encourages farmland preservation by providing tax credits to eligible farmland owners. The laws pertaining to the program are fairly straight-forward as to how to claim the credit. However, few attorneys take the time to understand the program. Claiming a Tax Credit In order to claim the tax credit, a landowner must be eligible to claim the credit. To be eligible, a landowner must be a Wisconsin resident for the entire tax year, must have eligible farm land,…