Farmers
Since 2009, Bonnefield has been creating long-term financial partnerships with Canadian farmers to help them grow, reduce debt, and finance retirement and succession while protecting Canadian farmland for farming.
Long-Term Partnerships
Bonnefield’s founders realized that the long-term success of the company would require alignment of its investing activities with the best interests of Canadian farm families. As such, since 2009, Bonnefield has been creating long-term financial partnerships with Canadian farmers through two primary programs: Farmland Lease Financing and Land-Unit Exchange.
Farmland Lease Financing Program
Bonnefield is Canada’s foremost provider of land-lease financing for farmers, dedicated to preserving farmland for farming across Canada. We partner with progressive farm operators – who embrace technology and recognize farming as a business as well as a lifestyle – and who are interested in long-term relationships.
As part of our lease, we expect farmers to follow a set of farm management best practices we call the Bonnefield Standards of Care to maintain the integrity of the land. Typically, the farmers we work with already meet these requirements in their existing farm practices. Bonnefield’s fundamental goal is to ensure that tenants have an as-if-owned relationship with the land they lease from Bonnefield which fosters long-term strategic planning.
Program Benefits
• Strengthen balance sheet • Improve cash flow • Retirement planning
• Farm succession • Secure currently leased land • Farm growth
Land-Unit Exchange Program
Over the years, we’ve met many farmers whose single biggest asset is their land; a healthy retirement plan, but for some, a rigid one. Through the Land-Unit Exchange program, farmers can transfer their land to Bonnefield on a tax-deferred basis and receive the value in units of Bonnefield Canadian Evergreen Limited Partnership.
If desired, the transfer also can be structured such that the farmers receive some cash and some units. Some farmers will find the program useful for estate planning since cash and units are easier to divide amongst beneficiaries than land. And, for those farmers who aren’t ready to retire, Bonnefield offers the opportunity to continue to work the land through our Farmland Lease Financing program.
Program Benefits
• Diversification • Liquidity • Simplicity • Flexibility • Performance
Preserving Farmland for Farming
Bonnefield’s ultimate goal is to promote sound farmland management practices, help improve operator efficiencies and protect the integrity of Canadian farmland.
Bonnefield believes Canadian farmland should remain farmland for farming indefinitely and that it should be monitored, maintained and operated in a sustainable and ecologically-responsible manner, which in turn, protects and enhances long-term returns for investors. We consider ourselves to be active owners, not that we dictate to farmers how to farm, but as part of the partnership, they agree to adhere to sustainable farming best practices known as the Bonnefield Standards of Care.
These guidelines promote sound farming practices to protect the integrity of the land. As well, we look for opportunities for additional capital investment that could improve long-term sustainability and agricultural yields. Protecting farmland for farming is core to our responsible investing approach. This approach is comprised of investing practices that are rooted in a set of core operating principles that put Canadian farmers and farmland first.
As a part of our commitment to preserving Farmland for Farming we have partnered with a number of organizations that support the farming community.
Food and Water First, a citizen coalition dedicated to protecting Ontario’s Class 1 farmland and source water region.
Canadian Young Farmers Federation connects leading young agriculture producers across Canada, to provide support, encouragement and resources to promote agriculture.
Canadian Association of Farm Advisors, a non-profit professional organization dedicated to assisting farm businesses by increasing the skills and knowledge of farm advisors.
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