It’s very hard to think about death or the fact that we will have to make arrangements for when we depart this world.

I, like many other farmers, probably think that making a will is for someone old.

I have been putting it off for many years. It’s not that I think I’m going to live for ever. My big problem has been that I didn’t know what I was going to include in the document.

My issue is that I have three sons and they all would like to have the farm, or at least part of it.

When they were young I always hoped that one of them would be interested in taking over, but I never expected all three of them to be keen on a career in farming.

I have had to make some difficult decisions. If I do nothing the difficulties and problems would be multiplied when I die

So what do I do? If I split the farm (about 183 acres) in three, it’s no good to any of them.

But I don’t want to show favouritism to one over the other, and I certainly think that any one of them could make a success of the farm.

With all these things in mind I have been reluctant to make any firm decisions. Everyone was telling me that I should write a will, and amend it in a few years if I wanted to, or if circumstances changed.

However, my father had a will which he said he wanted to change for eight or nine years, but sadly he died before he got around to updating the document. I wanted to be sure before I wrote my will.

Recently I have sought advice about what I need to do, and I have thought long and hard to try to make sure that I made the right decisions.

I also talked with my three sons individually and together to see what their thoughts were. I’m sure they found it strange talking to their father about what was going to happen when he died.

I certainly found it difficult, and I’m quite sure that a lot of farmers have gone through the torment that I went through. I can understand why they might continue to put off making any decisions.

Farm map

During the process, I took out the farm map and sat and looked at it for hours to see if there was some natural way to split the farm. I often stand in the yard and look out over the farm and try to imagine what it would look like if split in three.

I tried to be creative to see if there was some way of having a viable farm for all three.

Difficult

To be fair, the boys certainly know about the difficult situation I’m in.

They get on fairly well together and they could probably agree to work as a single farm business, but that could all change if some of them were to get married. When you bring someone else into the equation you don’t know how things will turn out.

I have had to make some difficult decisions. If I do nothing the difficulties and problems would be multiplied when I die. I may yet have to change things in the future.

My ideal situation would be to live long enough to have the whole farm handed over to the boys and watch them make a success of the business. But life doesn’t always quite turn out as you might want, so my advice to anyone in a similar situation is not to delay any longer.