Welcome to PA Farm Link's
2023 Farm Succession Workshops

PA Farm Link, partnering with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Business Development Center, is facilitating a Farm Succession workshop in Chester and Indiana County. This workshop provides to farmers the necessary tools to prepare for farm succession, communication methods for productive succession conversation, and the opportunity to speak with both ag professional and other farmers alike.

Indiana County Workshop

February 23, 2023

This event will be hosted between 9:30am - 2:30pm.

Indiana County Conservation District Office

435 Hamill Rd, Indiana, Pennsylvania

Chester County Workshop

March 1, 2023

This event will be hosted between 9:30am - 2:30pm.

Chester County Economic Development Center

737 Constitution Dr, Exton, PA 19341

Meet the Speakers

David L. Marrison

David Marrison, has served as a Field Specialist in Farm Management and as the Interim Director for the Farm Financial Management and Policy Institute (FFMPI) for Ohio State Extension since November 1, 2022. Mr. Marrison has worked for Ohio State University Extension since 1997, is a Professor in the Department of Extension, and served as an Agricultural and Natural Resources Extension Educator in Ashtabula, Trumbull, and Coshocton Counties from 1997 to 2022.

David is nationally known for his teaching in farm succession planning. He has a unique ability to intertwine humor into speaking about the difficulties of passing the farm on to the next generation. He has authored numerous publications in succession and estate planning. David was born and raised on a small dairy farm in northeast Ohio. Today, David and his family raise Boer meat goats and hay on a small farm in east central Ohio.

Marrison has received two of OSU Extension’s highest honors when he received the 2007 Excellence in Extension Award and the 2015 Steve D. Ruhl Outstanding Agricultural & Natural Resources County Extension Educator Award. He also received the 2010 National Association of County Agricultural Agents (NACAA) Distinguished Service Award and was the 2017 Search for Excellence Award for Farm Management Education. David received his Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Education and Agricultural Economics Degree from Ohio State University and a Master of Science Degree in Education from Purdue University in 1992.

Rob Goodling

Rob Goodling is an agricultural business consultant with Horizon Farm Credit in the Lewisburg office. Rob has over eighteen years of experience helping producers understand their farm business records and analyses to grow their operations. His specialties include financial business analysis, cost of production analysis, cash flow planning and budgeting, QuickBooks consultation and troubleshooting, dairy record evaluation, and team facilitation.

George Elser

George Elser is a native of Chester County where he lives with his wife in Strafford. For many years his family had a horse farm in Pocopson Township. With careful planning, he and his family placed the farm under a conservation easement and permanently preserved it for agricultural use.

George focuses much of his legal work on helping families with major decisions about succession planning including making decisions about their land and their farming activities. While doing that he helps families understand their options for all of their assets which can include placing land under agricultural easements or conservation easements as well as subdividing the land and developing plans for the transition of their farming business and other assets.

George has worked with families with horse farms as well as dairy farmers and vegetable farmers. In the area of conservation, he represents individuals and families who wish to preserve their land through conservation easements, selling development rights, or other ways of development while preserving the land. As a mediator, he works with families trying to resolve issues around land and other property.

George is a Fellow of the American College of Equine Attorneys in Lexington, KY and a member of the Agricultural Law Section of the Pennsylvania Bar Association and has spoken to various groups about families and land conservation.

Phil Taylor

Phil Taylor, M.S., is a farm business consultant with Farm Credit in western Pennsylvania with over ten years of consulting experience. He is a Certified Farm Succession Coordinator through the International Farm Transition Network. He has more than 35 years of agriculture industry experience, specializing in accounting, financial business analysis, farm succession and transition, feasibility investigations, and team facilitation. He helps farm families understand the importance of complete and accurate financial and production records for making the best management decisions for future success. He also provides guidance and facilitation services for farm families making decisions about transferring the farm business.

Robert L. Clark

Practicing Attorney in Lawrence County, PA since 1983

Our practice focuses on Estate Planning (Wills, Power of Attorneys, Living Wills) Real Estate (representing buyers and sellers and providing title insurance), Estate Administration, establishment of business organizations, Oil and Gas Law, and Farm Family Representation.

I had the opportunity to spend the first 33 years of my life on an operating Jersey dairy farm. We also had a bottling plant, retail and wholesale milk delivery routes, milk bulk tank, and crop farming of over 1,000 acres.

I’m a member of Farmer’s Union, Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, Pennsylvania Bar Association, Agricultural Law Committee.

I’ve been blessed with a wife, three children and five grandchildren.

Robert L. Clark Jr.

Practicing Attorney in Lawrence County, PA since 2017. I have had the pleasure of practicing with my dad in our law firm, helping him to provide clients with the same services. Due to recent demand, I have also further developed our practice’s solar law and trust drafting practice. I showed Jerseys in 4-H for seven years. My family now lives on an old farm in Mercer County with some chickens and plans to add other animals in the future. My wife and I have three children and has taken on an increasing role in the practice. Thus they are working on their own transition.

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Planning the Future of Your Farm Workbook

Workbook Sections

Farm owners and the next generation seeking to transition the farm will find this workbook extremely valuable in developing a solid transition/succession plan. It is a proven tool that PA Farm Link has utilized in transition planning throughout Pennsylvania.

Section One: Developing Your Vision for the Future

Includes rating life values, rating your comfort level, setting goals and objectives, sketching your retirement lifestyle, and a quick risk assessment: the 5D’s

Section Two: Developing Your Vision for the Future

Includes a primer on property ownership

Section Three: Farm Transfer Tools

Discusses different types of business entities of agriculture, forestry, horticulture ventures, and some tools and agreements you will encounter in the estate planning process.

Section Four: Preparing to Meet with Professional Advisors

Contains worksheets similar to those a financial planner or attorney will have you complete as part of their service to you.

"It takes a different mentality to be the next generation."

"Not all of the invasives are in farm fields, hedgerows, or forests. They can be found in the financials, equipment, structures, employees, working relationships, family members and family dynamics, to name a few."

Welcome to PA Farm Link's 2023 Farm Succession Workshops