Wellington County’s groundbreaking farm succession initiative, Your Farm, Your Future, has won Gold and been nominated for Best in Show by the International Excellence in Economic Development Council (IEDC), the world’s largest association of economic developers. LOFT32 led the strategic design and content creation for the project.
Developed to meet one of agriculture’s most urgent challenges — the retirement of an estimated 40%
of farmers between 2023 and 2033 — the project delivered a multipronged, farmercentred approach to
succession planning. The initiative included a print and digital guidebook, online learning modules,
webbased planning tools, and a threepart inperson workshop series.
“We started with respect and curiosity,” says Maggie Van Camp, LOFT32 cofounder and director of
strategic change. “Farmers are smart and want to plan for the best outcomes. Our job was to help them
prepare, improve communication, and take action.”
To build the project’s core framework, Van Camp convened a national team of succession and financial
experts — Elaine Froese (Manitoba), Rob Knight (Ontario), Trevor Maclean (Alberta), Len Davies
(Ontario), and Patti Durand (Saskatchewan). Together, they identified the 10–15 most critical questions
asked during succession planning of three key audiences: outgoing owners with a family successor,
outgoing owners without a successor, and incoming nonfamily successors. These questions became the
backbone of the guidebook, workshops, and online tools.
The response has been overwhelming. The three-workshop series sold out last winter, and demand for
reprints and web resources continues to grow across Canada.
“The need for farm succession planning is immense,” says Van Camp. “We need to work together, learn
from each other, and build solutions from the ground up — just as Wellington County did with this
project.”
Transition Planning | Wellington County
For more information contact:
Maggie Van Camp
maggie@loft32.ca
About IEDC
Based in Washington, D.C., the International Economic Development Council is the world’s largest
association for economic developers, representing more than 4,500 members across government,
nonprofits, publicprivate partnerships, utilities, universities, and entrepreneurial organizations.
About LOFT32 / Farmers Bridge
LOFT32, based in Guelph, Ontario, provides speaking, training, project management, and subjectmatter
expertise to elevate agricultural people, businesses and conversations. Farmers Bridge, a division of
LOFT32, focuses on succession solutions — connecting, training, and inspiring farmers to build a bridge to their future. Farmers’ Bridge – Connects, trains and inspires to help you build a bridge to your farms’ future.