Peter Templeton is the fifth generation to farm Harakeke Dairies on Southland’s south coast. His father completed a Nuffield Scholarship in 2006, and Peter grew up watching visiting scholars from around the world pass through the farm. When his own turn came, the topic he picked sat close to home: farm succession.

Peter’s path to ownership took a decade of standard rungs. Farm hand, 2IC, farm manager, then 50/50 sharemilker in 2016 when he returned to the family operation. Two seasons of leasing followed, and outright ownership came in August 2023. He knows the mechanics of a modern succession transaction from the inside.

His Nuffield research took him across 13 countries over 160 days, interviewing 103 farmers about how ownership passes between generations. The pattern he came back with is unusually specific for a topic this personal.

Start the conversation earlier than families think. Advisors here and overseas told him the sweet spot is 13 to 15 years old, well before children pick school subjects or holiday jobs. A teenager who understands what makes the family farm run financially can choose a path that complements it, rather than deciding retrospectively whether to come back.

Get a valuation done at any transition point. When a sibling returns to work, or the business splits, a fixed reference point stops what Peter calls the “moving target” problem, where later capital gains rewrite what fair means.

For the sibling actually working on the farm, wages beat a salary. Wages reward the hours actually put in, and head off the resentment that surfaces later when equal shares get discussed.

And use an independent advisor, ideally somewhere other than the farmhouse table. Of the 103 farmers Peter spoke to, about 50 who tried succession without one had a bad outcome. Of those who used an advisor, almost all did not.