Get the farm ready for the next generation.
Hopkins Farms is a fifth-generation family farm in Gilson, Illinois. Frank and Dot Hopkins wanted more than 30 years of landowner relationships written down, not just remembered. Here’s how they did it with Oaken.
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Family farms planning a transition
Write down what lives in one person’s head before the next generation takes over.
Farms with long landowner relationships
Track renewals, payments, birthdays and anniversaries for every landlord you work with.
A large family operation with a small office.
Frank and Dot own and run the farm. Dot recently left her off-farm job to run the office, including the landowner side of the business.
tillable acres of corn and soybeans.
hogs finished each year under contract, plus a cow/calf herd.
children: one working in the pork industry, twins starting at the University of Illinois.
From memory and paper to a system of record.
Why Hopkins Farms moved to Oaken, and what it changed.
Get the full case study ↓Decades of relationships, scattered records
Managing the farm’s legacy, organizing its data and the time it all took were the biggest hurdles.
One place for the dates that matter
A system to track renewal dates, birth dates and anniversaries, plus every conversation with current and potential landlords.
Oaken as the landowner system
Dot uses Oaken to keep contracts, payments, events and tasks for every landowner in a single system.
Time saved and records anyone can use
Less time computing payments and handling renewals, and a system of record the next generation can pick up.
What changed at Hopkins Farms.
“We were looking for a system that would help us track our communications with our current landlords as well as potential landlords, and Oaken is able to do that and much more.”
Dot HopkinsOwner-operator, Hopkins Farms
Landowner history lived with Frank and Dot
Thirty-plus years of relationships, renewal dates and payment details were kept by hand and in memory.
Every landowner in one record
Contracts, payments, events and tasks sit together, with renewals and important anniversaries tracked.
Ready to hand over
Time saved on payments and renewals, organized data, and records that are easy to share with successors.
Farms and landowners like yours.
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Pennsylvania · 18,000+ acres“Getting our data onto the Oaken platform was simple, and the benefits were immediate.”
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Nebraska · Family office“I'm saving my company money by having Oaken, because really it is my personal assistant.”
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Get the full Hopkins Farms case study.
The two-page PDF covers the farm, its goals for the next generation and the three benefits it saw with Oaken.
- The farm’s background and succession goals
- Why they chose Oaken to manage landowner relationships
- The three benefits: records, time saved and legacy
Planning a transition? See Oaken for retiring farmers and landowners →
Get the free case study
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Open the PDF below. It’s a two-page read, so it’s easy to share with your team or family.
Bring a lease spreadsheet to a 15-minute walkthrough. We’ll show your leases, landowners and rent schedule inside Oaken.
Pick a 15-minute time ↓About this case study.
Where is Hopkins Farms and how big is it?
Hopkins Farms is a fifth-generation farm in Gilson, Illinois, with 3,500 tillable acres of corn and soybeans, a contract hog-finishing operation of 25,000 hogs a year and a cow/calf herd.
Why did Hopkins Farms choose Oaken?
They wanted one system to track renewal dates, birth dates, anniversaries and communications with current and potential landlords, and a record the next generation could use.
How does Oaken help with farm succession planning?
Contracts, payments, events and tasks for each landowner are kept in one place, so the history behind every relationship is written down and easy for a successor to find.
Who should read this case study?
Family farms preparing a transition, and any operation that depends on long-standing landowner relationships.
Can Oaken bring in our current records?
Oaken can organize the landowners, lease terms, payments and documents you already track. Book a walkthrough to talk through your records and onboarding.
See how Oaken would organize your landowner records.
Fifteen minutes, your leases, your questions. No setup fees, and we import your spreadsheets for you.
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