Background
A dairy farmer milking over 80 cows and farming over 200 acres was considering his options with regard to incorporating his farming operation into a limited company. Overwhelmed by the magnitude of the decision, he approached us with a view to clearly setting out the pros and cons of his various options.
Our response
With the farming sector, there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution. We treat each case on its own merits and took the farmer in question through the various options open to him, clearly signposting the implications of any potential decision. Once he’d decided on the limited company option, we drew up a detailed plan for the changeover, and together with the farm advisor, drew up a detailed timetable and responsibility schedule which allowed the transfer to take place with minimal operational disruption.
The outcome
The farm is now trading successfully as a limited company. As an additional part of the exercise, we helped the owner to explore his options in terms of succession planning, and a detailed plan is now in place in this regard.