deerdown
Well-Known Member
I don't know of anyone in the area, but I've been in the cash rent game since 2009 and have learned a lot since then.
My farm is an investment, and I treat it as such, meaning I track and look out for the health of my ground. I get harvest tickets and fertilizer tickets to make sure my ground isn't being mined. I communicate often enough with my tenants to keep rapport. Going into a contract with them I make sure they understand my expectations and I theirs and we're both willing to uphold our end of the deal. These days I try to find an operator with all his own equipment for maintenance like a dozer, ss, excavator if possible so they don't have to wait on others to fix or improve something. I find tenants are more likely to do something if they have equipment to do it themselves as opposed to having to pay for it. I try to be fair with them and expect the same in return and I explain that to them. I found out there are a lot of farmers out there, but only a few that meet my expectations. Good luck!
My farm is an investment, and I treat it as such, meaning I track and look out for the health of my ground. I get harvest tickets and fertilizer tickets to make sure my ground isn't being mined. I communicate often enough with my tenants to keep rapport. Going into a contract with them I make sure they understand my expectations and I theirs and we're both willing to uphold our end of the deal. These days I try to find an operator with all his own equipment for maintenance like a dozer, ss, excavator if possible so they don't have to wait on others to fix or improve something. I find tenants are more likely to do something if they have equipment to do it themselves as opposed to having to pay for it. I try to be fair with them and expect the same in return and I explain that to them. I found out there are a lot of farmers out there, but only a few that meet my expectations. Good luck!
I got a guy
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ELK919
New Member
When you say your try to be “fair” with them, in what terms are you meaning here? I have a couple conversations this week with a couple guys to 1 hopefully create more row crop and see what that process looks like and 2 just start trying to maximize the land more with habitat bud also food.
letemgrow
PMA Member
Do they pay for the improvements on your farm along with the cash rent, or do you mean you cut the cash rent price when improvements are made by the tenant?
deerdown
Well-Known Member
Good question. "Fair" means different things to different people to be sure. Being fair to me, means not trying to squeeze every last dollar I can from a tenant. First, they aren't farming for the practice, they are in it to make money, otherwise, why do it. Also, I feel when a landlord squeezes a tenant for every profit they can, the tenant will try to get their profit somewhere, either by cutting back on fertilizer, chemicals, farming practices, etc.
I want to get fair market rent for my ground, I need to have the nutrients taken out put back in, and we try to agree what investments each of us will make to the farm (lime, tile, terraces, dirtwork, fencing, etc.). I paid for liming 420a this year and last year. The ph is or should be pretty good right now. Going forward, I expect him to lime as his farming those acres will reduce the ph, so in essence, he's using it up so to speak.
He's done some tree pulling and dirtwork on his dime. There's some tiling and terraces that would be beneficial to do, we need to have a discussion on how that gets paid for.
What we've done a few times is I pay for material, and he does the work (Crossings, drainage tubes, rock). On bigger jobs, I've usually footed the bill. i.e. there was a culvert on a crossing that kept blowing out because when the previous owner had it put in he didn't have seep collars put on the tube. The tenant paid for filling in the blowouts on his dime, but those were temporay fixes. We talked about what needed to be done as a permanent fix. 2 years ago the culvert was dug out, had seep collars welded on it and reset. I paid for that. A year later, we had 2 truckloads of rip-rap delivered to stabilize the sides of the culvert, I paid for the rock and delivery and he took his track loader down and put the rock in place.
What helps him invest his time and money into a farm is knowing I'm not going to give it to someone else next year for $10 more an acre. We just signed a 10 year lease this past weekend and I gave him all my tillable ground to farm. I feel it's in good hands is the reason I did it. I feel he's been fair with me, 2 years ago he offered to pay me more in cash rent on 2 farms, and we still had 3 years left on those leases. That gave him a lot of good will with me.
I learned by trial and error on finding tenants that matched my goals, and my goals for the ground changed over the years as well. It used to be that market rent and rotation of beans and corn was enough. A few years ago as I became more educated, and more serious on treating my ground as a investment. Took a long time to get here.
All I can say is be direct and specific with your goals of what you want to do and have done. Ask them what is possible within that framework in terms of timing, cash rent, and who's responsibility for the work. It's a process......
Sorry for writing a book, good luck.
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ELK919
New Member
No, I appreciate you taking the time to type and respond in great length, so thank you!!! I had the first conversation today, this farmer has cash rented the last 4 years well below what the lower rates are going for in my area. When I asked him about taking some of the pasure land, which is the same soil type as the current 20 acres of established dryland crops, he didnt seem to eager.
So hopefully tomorrows conversation goes better with my second farmer. I talked with him on the phone tonight about the idea of converting some pasture land into alfalfa, which is what his goal to plant is, and he seemed eager about it, but I will show him the property in the morning and go from there!
ELK919
New Member
Figured, I would update the situation, Farmer 2 is going to pay full market value for the "established" 20 acres of row crops upon a 4 year lease term due to the life span of alfalfa seed. The 30 acres of pasture land that needs to be converted to start gaining farming history - has some substantial cedar and brush clearing that needs to be done, however, he is willing to do all the brush clearing himself and absorb all the cost associated, in return I am going to let him drill cover crops and alfalfa in it for no charge for the duration of the 4 year contract. Downside, is I lose out on making money off of those acres initially however, I think that the farming history is the better long term play here.
letemgrow
PMA Member
I'd call that a fair deal for both parties.
What are your long term goals with the additional brushy acres?
You mentioned seeding it to alfalfa and establishing cropping history.
You mentioned seeding it to alfalfa and establishing cropping history.
Bassattackr
Well-Known Member
Agree with several others - If that's your long term goal for this area, seems like a reasonable deal.
ELK919
New Member
At some point if it makes sense, I would enroll it into CRP to maximize the price per acre. But first thing is, I have to get farming/crop history on it so hopefully it can qualify down the road.
That's kinds where I was headed.... double check but I don't beleive alfalfa counts as a crop year for CRP eligibility. They consider thst seeded down. My understanding is you need to be running grains to start the clock on crop history for CRP eligibility. Double check.
I was told had to be row crop- to get a proper value on mine. Had no history before.
I should also state- I have some CRP in with no history and am getting $62/acre.
Call your local NR
Call your local NRCS or FSA office and check.
Pretty sure it does count but maybe not for 5-7 years of straight alfalfa. I had a farm in Lucas a few years back and had broke out some ground to farm it. Wanted to get crop history going and was going to put some of it back into CRP when eligible. Was HEL ground, and they wanted me to rotate as follows: Beans, beans, corn, alfalfa for 2 years and start the process over again.
Like others have stated, call NRCS to verify. Would like to hear what they tell you on it.
Like others have stated, call NRCS to verify. Would like to hear what they tell you on it.