The land is the headline asset of a farm estate, but the enterprise around it, stock, machinery, scheme entitlements, co-op shares, milk supply arrangements, is property too, and it is property that deteriorates, breeds, depreciates and misses deadlines while the legal process runs. Administering it well is a distinct skill from administering money.
Valuation for the SA.2 and beyond
Every category needs a date-of-death value for the Statement of Affairs: stock at realistic mart prices for the classes and season, machinery at market rather than sentimental value, entitlements by reference to their current scheme worth, co-op shares at their prevailing basis. These figures then serve double duty, fixing shares between beneficiaries and framing any later dispute, so they should be professionally sourced, not guessed. The tax consequences of the values returned are matters on which specialist tax advice should be obtained.
Keeping the enterprise alive
Schemes have application windows, herds have registered keepers, stock must be fed, inseminated and sold in season, and none of it waits for a grant. The personal representative should regularise the interim position immediately: who is the herd keeper, whose name carries the scheme year, what arrangement governs the successor or neighbour working the ground, all documented, because informal stewardship is where both losses and later claimed entitlements grow. Insurance on yard, machinery and public liability must be confirmed in the correct name on day one.
Transfer to the successor
When distribution comes, each asset class has its own transfer mechanics: entitlements move under the scheme's transfer procedures with their own deadlines, stock moves through herd registration, co-op shares under the society's rules, machinery by simple delivery but ideally with a signed schedule. A completion checklist for the farm transfer, run alongside the assent of the land itself, ensures the successor receives a working farm rather than a legal fragment of one.
This article is general information, not legal advice. For the full practice area, see Farm Estates and Agricultural Probate, or contact the practice to discuss a matter in confidence.