Free beginning farmer and farm transition workshops to be held in Spearfish

Free workshops will be offered to farmers and ranchers in Freeman and Spearfish, S.D. Workshops will be hosted at the Freeman Community Center July 27 and the Hudson Street Hall at 222 West Hudson St. in Spearfish July 28 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The workshop presentations will address both USDA programs in support of beginning farmers and ranchers and farm and ranch estate and succession planning issues and tools.

These workshops are made available through a partnership between Dakota Rural Action and the Farm Law Project of Legal Aid of Nebraska.

Presentations will cover the following USDA programs that target beginning farmers and ranchers: Beginning Farmer Loan programs; Microloans; Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-raised Fish (ELAP); Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP); Livestock Forage Program (LFP); Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP).

In addition, the workshops will address basic estate and transitioning planning issues and tools, including federal transfer taxes, incapacity planning, transfer tools (wills, titling and trusts), balancing the interests of on-farm and off-farm heirs (access to land and operational assets, contribution and compensation, management and control, asset protection, leases, tools for co-ownership), and decision making steps in the transition planning process.

Presenters are Joe Hawbaker, Agricultural Law Attorney, with Hawbaker Law Office, Omaha, Neb., and Amy Swoboda, Farm and Food Attorney with Legal Aid of Nebraska, Lincoln, Neb.

Please Call the Rural Response Hotline- 1-800-464-0258 to register.