LANDED

The Sheltons are protecting their ranch with a conservation easement — but now they have to bring their family together to put a succession plan into place. Jim and Sara Shelton have been thinking about succession planning for nearly a decade. Alongside their four children, they’ve been to workshops, listened to podcasts, and talked to farming friends. In other words, they have studied for the tes...

A new farmer finds her calling on land she doesn’t own. Ann Gilman wanted to farm — to root into the Washington soil and build a viable small business. She had studied the art and science of sustainable agriculture. She was driven and devoted. But she couldn’t find affordable land on which to grow her vision. That is, until she met Bob and Donna Gilby. As newly retired farmers, Bob and Donna were...

After high school, Marshall Bartlett left his family’s farm in the Mississippi Hill Country to attend college in New England. He loved working the land with his dad, and he loved Mississippi, but he needed to get away and explore. A few years later, he was itching to come home—but he wasn’t sure how. His family’s farm was a conventional row crop operation, and he wasn’t interested in managing it....

Across the country, professionals are helping aging farmers and ranchers make plans for their land. These “Land Transfer Navigators” are securing the future of agriculture one farm, family, and community at a time. In this episode, ride along with Dan Skeeters—a Navigator from Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust—as he supports two different ranching families through the ins and outs of su...

Matthew and Althea Raiford didn't plan on becoming farmers. They left their South Georgia town when they were young, pursuing different paths. But eventually, their family’s 150-year-old farming legacy called the two siblings home—only for them to find that their family’s land had been broken up by forces beyond their control. So they got to work.   With creativity, cooperation, and an unrelenting...

As a child, Dustin Watson promised his grandparents that he would keep the family’s farm going. He would care for the land and livestock just like the generations before him. But complex family dynamics, a lack of succession planning, and rising land prices in his rural Virginia community put the farm’s future in jeopardy. Through tired and teary eyes, he saw the end of a legacy closing in. In thi...

American farmers are aging, and the land they own will soon change hands. How that land transfers—and to whom it transfers—will shape the future of our food and farming systems. In this prologue, hosts Brooks Lamb and Megan Faller introduce the show and themselves, and they share why farm succession planning and next-generation land access are so important to them personally. You’ll also hear from...