From Mom & Pop to Daughters

Identifying the transition between one generation to the next as the most vulnerable time for family farms, Michigan State has begun a program “Farm it Forward” with the goal of smoothing that transition and preserving the family farm. A short story detailing the program appears in the Grand Rapids Press this week. Farmgirl Amy Laper plans to take upcoming courses so that she and her husband and sister can more easily take over operations from her parents who own Anderson & Girls Orchard in Stanton, Mich. The paper reports that the average Michigan farmer is near 60, so transition issues are critical for the some 9,000 farms throughout western Michigan.