Landowners and tenants can improve their knowledge of current leasing issues by attending a farmland leasing meeting sponsored by Iowa State University Extension. These meetings are held annually across the state beginning in late July and during August. This year’s meetings are scheduled to begin July 29 in Buchanan, Dallas and Jasper counties.

More than 80 meetings will be held across the state, led by ISU Extension farm management specialists. Each meeting will be a three-hour workshop designed to assist landowners, tenants and other agribusiness professionals with current issues related to farmland ownership, management and leasing arrangements.

The meetings are featured in ISU’s July Ag Decision Maker newsletter. Topics will include trends in land values and rental rates, conservation issues, farm bill topics, and a look at the year ahead.

Tenants and landlords need to talk

“We’ve seen an increasing need for farmland owners and producer-tenants to have more conversation about the cost of crop inputs, as well as reasonable expectations on profit margins,” says Melissa O’Rourke, ISU Extension farm management specialist. “ISU Extension has good resources to help people think about how input costs can be considered in setting cash lease rates, and the workshops will show you how those resources can be used.”

According to O’Rourke, the volatility of commodity markets has led to increased inquiries regarding both fixed and flexible cash lease arrangements.

Participants attending the workshops will receive a 100-page workbook with information and resources such as surveys, example lease agreements and termination forms, and several other publications that will help answer common questions, and possibly spark new ideas.

Fair rental rates for both parties

One of the challenges that Iowa landowners and tenants continue to face is the knowledge gap that can exist with modern production agriculture. “We have more aging landowners, and landowners who have never farmed themselves – many of these have inherited land from farming parents,” O’Rourke says. “Together, meeting with the producers, we try to educate the parties to understand factors that need to be taken into account on setting rent and farmland management considerations.”

See a listing of ISU Extension county offices hosting meetings available. Preregistration is encouraged, and an additional $5 fee may be added if registering less than two calendar days before a meeting date.

ISU’s Ag Decision Maker website has a leasing section that also provides useful materials for negotiating leases, information on various types of leases, lease forms and newly updated Decision Tools. AgDM File C2-10, Cash Rental Rates for Iowa 2019 Survey, provides detailed results by county and crop. There was considerable variability across counties in year-to-year changes, as is typical of survey data, but 65 counties experienced declines in average rents for corn and soybeans.

Source: ISU, which is responsible for information provided and is wholly owned by source. Informa Business Media and subsidiaries aren’t responsible for content in this information asset.