A trio of family farm transition workshops are attracting a lot of attention this week.

Keynote speaker Jeanne Martinson talked about leadership and communication on multi-generation farms.

She says when you think about social generations, that's traditionalists, baby boomers, generation X and generation Y and they all want different things.

"This generation X and generation Y have a high need for having their personal objectives met as well as a high need for training and mentoring. How do they take over the enterprise without that training and mentoring? Quite often older generations think if this younger person has been around for 20 years they've absorbed all the decision making and all the knowledge they need to make these decisions going forward."

She also reminded the group not to assume people know what's going on if you haven't actually told them and to keep family and business time separate.

"If you don't want that in-law having an opinion then don't talk about business in front of that person. Have a business meeting at the beginning of the day on the farm before everyone does what they need to do. I realize that's challenging because you are consumed by the business, especially certain times of the year but having said that it's unfair to that in-law, especially a daughter-in-law to not put her two cents in if you are discussing an issue right in front of her."

Tuesday's workshop was held in Kindersley, Wednesday the event was held in Humboldt and Thursday they will be in Tisdale.