At the end of December , Margie and Dan First were at the movies when Dan began to feel ill, really ill. His head pounded, then he vomited.
A friend recommended they call an ambulance immediately. Dan was rushed to the hospital, where they learned that he had suffered a brain aneurysm. The events of that day, traumatic as they were, were much more life changing for the family than anyone in the First clan could have predicted.
Like many people, Dan, a year-old Michigan dairy farmer, had never really thought about his own demise. Now, suddenly, things were different. I would have been lost without him. And although Josh had dropped everything to help, he and his mom started to butt heads over farm decisions.
Something had to be done, and the Firsts decided that meant transitioning control of the farm to Josh. But they had no idea where to start.
Roger Betz is one of the many state agricultural extension agents. But Betz and others like him are much more than just numbers-obsessed economists to the people they serve. They become close confidantes and facilitators of conversations about farm transition and land transfer. These are some of the hardest conversations families face because they involve delicate and emotionally fraught issues of money, land, relationships, and death.
