Do Unto Others

February 22, 2012

Trust, Communication Make Landowner/Tenant Relationships Work

Stories of a tenuous relationship between a landowner and tenant make good local fodder, but you won't get one of those stories from Richard and Glenda Randall.

The west-central Kansas growers have been renting land for more than 20 years. In addition to the ground they own, the couple rents 3,500 acres and grows irrigated corn, wheat and sorghum.

The Randalls have two landowners, and they couldn't be more pleased with either. "Both our landowners are very hands-on," Richard Randall says. And, Glenda Randall adds, both parties—the Randalls and their landowners—work hard at keeping open the lines of communication.

"If we're putting fertilizer on the fields, we always share what type of fertilizer we use and how much it's going to cost," she says. "So they know in advance about some of the bills that are going to be coming. We work on making our crop-insurance choices with the landowners to see whether they want to take out more on the hail side, etc. We make all those decisions with them."

That communication is absolutely crucial for a long-term business relationship between landowner and tenant as the number of farm leases continues to grow, says Kansas State University Extension specialist Kevin Dhuyvetter. According to a study on farm tenure by the USDA Economic Research Service, "Leased land has assumed an increasing share of farm operations as farm numbers decline and average farm size increases."

(BS)

© Copyright 2012 DTN/The Progressive Farmer, A Telvent Brand. All rights reserved.

DTN - The Progressive Farmer