Interesting discussion. Many of the thoughts apply to this operation. As a person that is moving on the final years of his life no matter what age I check out would like to share a few thoughts.  Planning is great and needed, but plans do fail and have flaws.  I never dreamed that my children would not be part of the farm operation. They were and still are welcome and preparations made to give them opportunities to move forward.  It simply did not work as I planned. One can plug in many variables that account why the dream of a smooth run family operation fails more times than it succeeds. This is a general statement and specifics not presented.  Our future in agriculture production as family farms is not healthy. I really think  smooth family transitions are a thing of the past and few and far between.  Sorry for the doom and gloom on the day the Son has Risen.