During my career we absorbed two farming operations like you describe. The guys, decent enough farmers, but were not "aggressive" and found they were looking at needing to upgrade equipment at a high cost. Looking at their income and the debt to upgrade then the need to expand to cover that debt they just decided to hang it up. In both cases they came to us and ask if we were interested in taking on their own ground plus some of their landlords and since they still enjoyed farming coming to work for us. 

That scenario worked out great in both situations. We got more ground and excellent employees and they still got to run tractors and combines and do the part of farming they enjoyed without the worry and the book keeping/finance worries. They both (each at different time frames) worked for us till either retirement or one got a job offer at a small manufacturing he could not afford to not take. But the situation worked out well for all parties involved and they both liked not having the financial worries and even  the wife in one situation appreciated the better attitude of her husband in the new situation he was in.