Farmers are working past 65. Who takes over the farm?
In 2023, for the first time, New Zealand had more farmers aged 65 and over than in any younger 10-year age group. The 2023 Census counted 13,881 farmers in that bracket, up 66% from 8,370 in 2013, Stats NZ says.
Across all occupations, the number of employed people aged 65 and over rose 54% over the same decade. The median farmer was 49.8 years old in 2023, against 41.9 for all employed people.
The spread inside farming is wide. Stats NZ puts the median dairy cattle farmer at 41.0 years, the median sheep farmer at 55.8 and the median beef cattle farmer at 62.2.
But staying on isn’t the same as having a plan. Rabobank’s white paper Changing of the guard estimates that more than half of New Zealand’s farm and orchard owners, about 17,320 people, will reach 65 within a decade. At current land values, it puts the farming assets that depend on a successful succession at more than $150 billion, which it calls a conservative estimate.
Two in three farmers have no formal plan
Data collected for the paper found only one in three farmers had a formal succession plan, Rabobank New Zealand chief executive Todd Charteris said. A further 17% had discussed succession with the relevant people but documented nothing, and 50% had neither talked about it nor started a plan.
Charteris said most farmers interviewed for the paper had been working on succession for years, and all of them wished they’d started sooner. The delay “in itself becomes a problem”, he said, because the longer it runs, the fewer succession options remain.
Manaaki Whenua’s Survey of Rural Decision Makers asks the question directly. In the 2025 round, completed by 2,794 farmers, foresters, growers and lifestyle block owners, 26% of those aged 61 to 70 said they didn’t intend to stop managing or downsize within 10 years, and another 13% were unsure. Among those aged 71 and over, 23% had no such plans and 17% were unsure.
The 2023 round of the same survey found most respondents aged 65 and over planned to sell their land, while about a third weren’t sure what they’d do with it. Of those planning to leave their land to a successor, a third still hadn’t identified who.
The cost of buying in
Charteris said taking over the family farm means committing to decades of debt in a volatile sector, a big call for a young farmer and their bank. Data collected for the paper suggests the financial obstacles have plateaued, though. Charteris said total package values for farm employees kept pace with land valuations between 2011 and 2024.
Getting onto the ladder is still hard, he said, because farms are bigger and need higher margins to support borrowing. The paper highlights hybrid ownership models and corporate structures, which some farming families are adopting to stay connected to the land.
Where to start
Sector bodies have their own guidance. Beef + Lamb New Zealand says over half of New Zealand farmers identify succession as an issue for them and their family, and its Knowledge Hub has a 40-minute module on building a farm business transition and succession plan.
DairyNZ says succession planning isn’t only for retiring farmers, because illness or death can strike at any time. It suggests starting with conversations about the business’s future and everyone’s expectations, then bringing in an independent facilitator, accountant, farm advisor, lawyer or bank manager. It also says plans and goals should be written down.
Even modest assets should have a will, DairyNZ says. Without a current one, assets may not pass to the people a farmer intended, or could end up with the state.
