Wer übernimmt den elterlichen Hof? Schweizer Fallbeispiele im Zeitraum von zehn Jahren

Farm transfer is a conscious decision-making process in which various advantages and disadvantages are considered and evaluated on both a farm and a personal level. Basic structural conditions such as the takeover price and the Swiss agricultural policy are involved in the decision. An analysis of farm succession situations on seven Swiss family farms over a ten-year period has also shown that other factors are significant too. Thus an interest in farming, education and the family, including the family constellation, play a major role. Expectations and socialisation exert a considerable influence on potential successors, even though traditional standards such as farm transfer to the eldest son are no longer so important. Gender-specific patterns of farm transfer continue to predominate, however. Irrespective of their interest, daughters are only taken into consideration as farm successors if there are no sons who want to take over the parental farm.