who here rents farmland?

[lonelyfarmgirl]

I would like to know if you rent farmland, your location and what you pay per acre. Here its almost un affordable. 130$ an acre per year..eastern WI

[Kris in MI]

We rent out 18 acres for $50 an acre to a farmer who lives a couple miles away. That is low-average for our area and dh is thinking about raising it (he has been approached by two other farmers; one offering beef in exchange, the other offering more $$).

ETA: we are located between Detroit and Lansing

[uncle Will in In.]

When corn was $3.?? a bushel, the rent was running close to dollar per bushel of the average expected yield per acre> Example -- if the farm normaly produces 150 bushels per acre the rent was around $150 per acre. With the corn getting near $6.00 this year the rent per acre could be hard to agree on next year.

[Emmy D]

I guess I don't understand if you are talking about "pasture" land or "crop" land?? We rent out our 84 acres of crop land because we didn't want to keep farming corn/beans, maintaining expensive machinery, etc. Our farmer pays us $275 per acre per year.

I rent out our 9ish acres of pasture to a guy who brings me 4 cows and their calves from June through late October, I charge him $100 per season, he also brings me 48 bales of straw at no charge for my chickens, gardens, around the well house etc. Yes, that is really LOW, but at least I don't have to keep those 9 acres mowed, when I can afford new fence I will get my own cows.

Emmy

[EarthSheltered]

We rent an adjoining 40 acres to make hay. $25 per acre. Central PA,

[DaleK]

I rent about 530 acres from 11 different landlords. Average rent is about $33.

[jjgrappler]

Dumb question but I was looking at renting some land for next year to plant some crops and possible pasture. How do you go about finding where to rent and how to ask.

[agmantoo]

Tillable land is leased at $70 per year. Pasture is around $35.

[fantasymaker]

Most land here rents for$120 to $250 PER Acre. thats about a buck a bushel.
There is some gound near here that Id like to rent Ive offered $550 and acre so far and may have to go higher to get it.

[silverbackMP]

I rent mine out on thirds. My take from 1/3 of the soy beans was just shy of $100.00 per acre. May get more next year if he can get a winter crop of wheat and then a latter crop of beans.

My land is not really suitable (read "good) enough for corn. Then again, it costs less than half of the cheapest bottom ground.

[rambler]

Originally Posted by jjgrappler

Dumb question but I was looking at renting some land for next year to plant some crops and possible pasture. How do you go about finding where to rent and how to ask.

Kinda depends what you are talking about. In real farm country with grain production, you couldn't carve off a couple ares for such an operation, it would degrade the rest of the farm value too much. Grain farmers typically have land leases worked out by Sept for the folowing year, so that fall tillage, fertilizer, and seed purchases can be done by all involved. Some farm land is availabble where the previous renter was let go of course. But pretty hard to find.

You are likely looking for an odd cornr, small acreage to rent, that isn't in the farm program, and not seriously farmed?

Just gotta hang out in the right coffee shops and farm supply stores and horse clubs to run into someone with an odd piece of land that a big farmer can't use, and is willing to rent out cheap.

Pasture is a long-term crop, takes a year to make one before you get any use out of it, so probably need to find an old abandoned one to clean up?

--->Paul

[rambler]

Originally Posted by DaleK

I rent about 530 acres from 11 different landlords. Average rent is about $33.

Wow. You hear of some rents of $150 around here but that is rare. $175 - 235 is common, and you hear of the rare $305 now and then for a good big flat field.

Must be dry & cold up there to keep it 'cheap'.

--->Paul

[lonelyfarmgirl]

I guess I didnt realize it was going for so much more elsewhere. this is lush flat corn/soy/alfalfa land. we are in a big arguement with who we 'rent' land from. its always been a trade agreement because thats how he wanted it. (I never liked it, wasn't my deal) Now, he's getting weird about it and starting lots of arguements and threats, etc...because he wants money, yet he won't state an amount he wants. this could be used for cash cropping, but we have beef cattle instead.

[Lazy J]

As with anything dealing the real estate the rate of farmland rental is dependent on LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION.

We cash rent about 90% of our crop operation, the remaining 10% is 50:50 sharecropped. If I were a landowner I'd be on a 50:50 sharecrop, it has been more profitable the past two years for my landlords than a straight cash payment.

I am leaning towards having a flat rate cash rent payment for all my landlords. There would then be increases based on several variables such as size of field, quality of ground, accessibility, etc.

Jim

[rambler]

I'll go out on a limb and say, relatives can make life so much fun can't they?

Cash rent is king around here; you can't draw social security & crop share. So as farmers retire, they cash rent their land out.

--->Paul

[Old Vet]

I used to rent land (10,000 acres) I owned 500 acres. It was crop sharing 1/4 to 3/4 . Some of the land was so pour that weeds had a hard time growing but most of it was good ground and some of it was in trees some of it was pecan trees the rest was either Rice, cotton, soy beans, and wheat. We settled on crop sharing because you would have to parceled out the bad from the good and have many farmers trying to make a crop and the owner didn't want that. But if you are talking about 20 or 40 acres cash is the only way to rent it.

[springvalley]

Yep, depends where your at and what you use it for, to many variables. Some rent down our way has hit the 300 per acre, some are on shares. I don`t think I could put up with a tenant anymore so I would probly just sell at that point. > Marc

[wogglebug]

Just a comment, heading off at a bit of a tangent from the original question:

Land is a lot cheaper than losing lives.

If TS of any type HTF and you're reduced to subsistence farming, an acre of farming land will support at least six adults for a year. Using pessimistic estimates, an acre will produce a ton - 90 bushels - of wheat grains.
This should have read 30 bushels. I had a mental slip and multiplied it by the 3 in the next sentence. Every other figure is correct, and consistent with 30 bushels of wheat - approximately one ton - per acre. However, that seems to be more than some poor people can cope with.
Might do a lot better - maybe three times, maybe even five times/tons per acre. Maybe a lot more if you're growing corn or grain sorghum. However, barring fire, flood, famine and pestilence, you should be assured of at least a ton of wheat per acre. Now, a pound of wheat is about 1,500 calories, which will support someone at better than subsistence level. It will let them do some work. That means your ton of wheat should support six adults or an average family through a year, but with little to spare for trading. If you add an extra acre of bush beans, they'll produce half to two-thirds of a ton of bean seed per acre. Beans weigh about the same as wheat - about 60 pounds per bushel. They also have roughly the same energy content - say 1,500 or maybe 1,600 calories per pound of dried beans, If you add half a pound of beans to a pound of wheat, you are getting 2,200 - 2,300 calories for each of six adults from two acres of land. Stagger the plantings of the beans so they don't all ripen at once, and pick green beans off the bushes before they ripen. Plant some kale, tomatoes, garlic and onions (remember you can chop and eat garlic and onion greens, or baby bulbs), squash and pumpkin, zuccini, strawberries, melons, bush fruit and brambles, and sweet potatoes for greens as well as tubers, and you're beginning to get quite an adequate standard of living. Fill in corners with cotton and flax (linseed, linen). Grow sheep and goats, chickens, ducks, Muscovies, geese and turkeys, rabbits. Cattle if you've got the land and the fences for them - and if you've got fences that will control goats then they should be capable of containing anything. Use the leather as buckskin, mocassins and harness. Spin, and weave or knit or crochet cotton, linen, wool, angora. You're getting quite an adequate living off land you can rent for $1,000 a year. It's not expensive, it's a bargain. And all this in a poor year - anything better will give you excess to trade with, and spare cash - like for paying your rent.

Of course you'd be in trouble if the owner decided not to rent you the land any longer. Ideally you yourself should own at least five acres (adjust for your local land and climate). Maybe rental is an opportunity to find land to buy. Renting two acres or five is slim pickings for the owner - hardly worth their while. You can probably only rent such a small amount because it's an orphan block, isolated from the rest of their farm. In that case they may be willing to listen to an offer to purchase that little block that to them is lonesome and troublesome.

[Old Vet]

Originally Posted by wogglebug

Just a comment, heading off at a bit of a tangent from the original question:

Land is a lot cheaper than losing lives.

If TS of any type HTF and you're reduced to subsistence farming, an acre of farming land will support at least six adults for a year. Using pessimistic estimates, an acre will produce a ton - 90 bushels - of wheat grains. Might do a lot better - maybe three times, maybe even five times/tons per acre. Maybe a lot more if you're growing corn or grain sorghum. However, barring fire, flood, famine and pestilence, you should be assured of at least a ton of wheat per acre. Now, a pound of wheat is about 1,500 calories, which will support someone at better than subsistence level. It will let them do some work. That means your ton of wheat should support six adults or an average family through a year, but with little to spare for trading. If you add an extra acre of bush beans, they'll produce half to two-thirds of a ton of bean seed per acre. Beans weigh about the same as wheat - about 60 pounds per bushel. They also have roughly the same energy content - say 1,500 or maybe 1,600 calories per pound of dried beans, If you add half a pound of beans to a pound of wheat, you are getting 2,200 - 2,300 calories for each of six adults from two acres of land. Stagger the plantings of the beans so they don't all ripen at once, and pick green beans off the bushes before they ripen. Plant some kale, tomatoes, garlic and onions (remember you can chop and eat garlic and onion greens, or baby bulbs), squash and pumpkin, zuccini, strawberries, melons, bush fruit and brambles, and sweet potatoes for greens as well as tubers, and you're beginning to get quite an adequate standard of living. Fill in corners with cotton and flax (linseed, linen). Grow sheep and goats, chickens, ducks, Muscovies, geese and turkeys, rabbits. Cattle if you've got the land and the fences for them - and if you've got fences that will control goats then they should be capable of containing anything. Use the leather as buckskin, mocassins and harness. Spin, and weave or knit or crochet cotton, linen, wool, angora. You're getting quite an adequate living off land you can rent for $1,000 a year. It's not expensive, it's a bargain. And all this in a poor year - anything better will give you excess to trade with, and spare cash - like for paying your rent.

Of course you'd be in trouble if the owner decided not to rent you the land any longer. Ideally you yourself should own at least five acres (adjust for your local land and climate). Maybe rental is an opportunity to find land to buy. Renting two acres or five is slim pickings for the owner - hardly worth their while. You can probably only rent such a small amount because it's an orphan block, isolated from the rest of their farm. In that case they may be willing to listen to an offer to purchase that little block that to them is lonesome and troublesome.

You can believe what you want but I raised wheat and the state average is 25 bushels per acre.The best I ever got was 40 bushels. But if you had really good good soil and fertilized it real well you might get the 90 bushels but not every year. I have never seen that good of land. What you are doing is confusing good land for something that everybody has.
Where I live and the ground is so pour that it will take at least 20 acres to produce what 5 acres did when I farmed. What you need to do is put a disclaimer and say this is for really good land.

[Lazy J]

Originally Posted by wogglebug

Using pessimistic estimates, an acre will produce a ton - 90 bushels - of wheat grains. Might do a lot better - maybe three times, maybe even five times/tons per acre.

What Fantasy Land do you live in? There is no way we can produce 90 bushel wheat on our forest derived soils of NE Indiana.

There are some areas that may produce 90 bushel wheat, but that is by no means an average.

Regardless of the yield you still need a source for nitrogen, no nitrogen added = reduced wheat yield.

Jim