{"id":27864,"date":"2023-12-11T09:00:22","date_gmt":"2023-12-11T14:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/?p=27864"},"modified":"2023-12-06T14:28:34","modified_gmt":"2023-12-06T19:28:34","slug":"maryland-department-of-agriculture-offers-new-services-for-farm-succession-planning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2023\/12\/11\/maryland-department-of-agriculture-offers-new-services-for-farm-succession-planning\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland Department of Agriculture Offers New Services for\u00a0Farm Succession Planning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2023\/12\/Mediation-Mondays.png\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"27865\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2023\/12\/11\/maryland-department-of-agriculture-offers-new-services-for-farm-succession-planning\/attachment\/mediation-mondays\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2023\/12\/Mediation-Mondays.png?fit=940%2C788&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"940,788\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Mediation Mondays\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2023\/12\/Mediation-Mondays.png?fit=760%2C637&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-27865\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2023\/12\/Mediation-Mondays.png?resize=300%2C251\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"251\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2023\/12\/Mediation-Mondays.png?resize=300%2C251&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2023\/12\/Mediation-Mondays.png?resize=768%2C644&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2023\/12\/Mediation-Mondays.png?w=940&amp;ssl=1 940w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', serif\"><strong>ANNAPOLIS, MD (December 11, 2023)<\/strong> \u2013 The <strong>Maryland Agricultural Conflict Resolution Services <\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', serif\"><strong>(ACReS)<\/strong> program has added farm succession planning to its scope of services at the <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', serif\"><strong>Maryland<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', serif\"><strong>\u00a0Department of Agriculture<\/strong>. The <\/span><a style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', serif\" href=\"https:\/\/extension.umd.edu\/programs\/agriculture-food-systems\/program-areas\/farm-and-agribusiness-management\/farm-transitions-and-estate-planning\">University of Maryland Extension<\/a><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', serif\"> also offers similar resources and farmers and watermen are encouraged to seek out either program. Program Director, Dr. <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', serif\">Kay-Megan Washington, a recently certified\u00a0 <strong>Farm Succession Coordinator<\/strong> by the <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', serif\"><strong>International Farm Transition Network<\/strong>, is available to provide planned transfer of money, management, and assets in a manner which allows the farm business to continue under a new primary operator. In transitioning a farm business, often the business is owned and\/or operated within a family. Due to this overlap between family and business, there may be issues which arise regarding communication, assumpt<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', serif\">ions and expectations, compensation, management and control, debt acquisition, documentation and recordkeeping.<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', serif\">ACReS offers mediation services to all farmers and watermen. It is important to start mediation as soon as an issue arises &#8211; the sooner the service is utilized, the better chance of a positive outcome. The service is completely confidential and is low to no-cost. Mediation is a great alternative to lawyers and lawsuits and can also move faster than a lawsuit.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', serif\">\u201cWe are proud to expand our services to farmers and watermen in Maryland;\u201d said <strong>Maryland Department of Agriculture Secretary Kevin Atticks.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cPlanning for the future is critical to the health of farms and watermen across the state; we are excited that Dr. Washington is certified and can offer this service for free.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', serif\">For more information on services offered, please visit: <a href=\"https:\/\/mda.maryland.gov\/Pages\/acrs.aspx\">https:\/\/mda.maryland.gov\/Pages\/acrs.aspx<\/a>. You can also contact the Program Coordinator directly, Kay-Megan Washington (pictured), at <a href=\"mailto:kay-megan.washington1@maryland.gov\">kay-megan.washington1@maryland.gov<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', serif\"># # #\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', serif\">Follow the Maryland Department of Agriculture @MDAgDept on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/mdagdept\/\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MdAgDept\">Facebook<\/a>, or <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MdAgDept\">Twitter<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ANNAPOLIS, MD (December 11, 2023) \u2013 The Maryland Agricultural Conflict Resolution Services (ACReS) program has added farm succession planning to its scope of services at the Maryland\u00a0Department of Agriculture. The University of Maryland Extension also offers similar resources and farmers and watermen are encouraged to seek out either program. Program Director, Dr. Kay-Megan Washington, a<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2023\/12\/11\/maryland-department-of-agriculture-offers-new-services-for-farm-succession-planning\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":222,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/222"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27864"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27866,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27864\/revisions\/27866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}