# Land Rent



## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

In my surrounding area there is a fair amount of row crop land that is just average too good but not spectacular. The last couple years something happened that was kind of new to the area people put land up for bid. LOT OF small-time wannabes vintage land at $ 300 and got it cuz the Btos don't want to come back in this area the fields Farm too hard with the big equipment. Lady told me last night her tenants are now four months on behind with the rent and sent a Dear John Letter and asked if she would accept $100 per acre instead of $300 per acre. She said she liked when I farmed their land and she would gladly rent it to me again for $200 per acre without putting it on bid. .. well I never paid $200 for it before why would I pay $200 now. I did tell her we would talk about it and I had to think about it a little....... We had quite a few landowners call recently and we are negotiating with several. We did pick up a fair amount of land since the last growing season
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## RuttedField (Apr 24, 2016)

Endrow, I feel for you.

Right now our area is in a crunch too for land. We have an Amish Population moving in and they want farm land, the area I live is the Homestead capital of the world with more start up farms then anywhere and these people want farmland, and local dairy farmers have to get bigger to stay in business. All this on a land base where 10% of the land is field and 90% is forest.

Myself, I had a guy come and ask me to clear stumps from his 18 acres of clearcut and I can have his land. I am considering it because, well land clearing is what I do, but around here landowners are fickle. This guy claims I can have it forever if I turn it into a field, but people forget after you invest A LOT of money in diesel fuel and time. Since I don't need the land at this time, and my own farm is not 100% productive (I have some areas that are not great forest, nor are they fields), I am thinking of just farming my farm until I get to the point where I have to buy more land, or rent it.

Glad to hear you picked up more farm land though this year.

BTW: Open land here rent wise is about $35 an acre for tillable land over 15 acres in size. Under 15 acres and it is $25.


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## PaMike (Dec 7, 2013)

-Commodities have been low enough for long enough that guys cant keep taking a loss on renting high priced land. You can only lose for so long...

-As taxes and land prices continue to climb in central PA more and more land owners are going to be looking to maximize their return on investment by putting land out for bid. Around here land @ $150/acre rent barely even pays the taxes on the land..


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## RuttedField (Apr 24, 2016)

They say Maine is like 7th highest in the nation. I pay about $10 an acre, but that is averaging in the houses, sawmills and barns too. It sounds kind of low at first, but it really adds up. Take my neighbor for instance, he has 3200 acres, so his tax bill is around $32,000 a year. He has beef and sells hay so he has quite the expense before he even gets started. BUT like me, most of his land is in forest, only 400 acres is in field. I don't know how he gets by.


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

RuttedField said:


> I don't know how he gets by.


He might have a OTFJ (Off The Farm Job), a rich Uncle who died or won the lottery. 

Back on track, land rent is from $25-$75 an acre in MY area. The lower amounts are long time relationships. There are some that are even almost free, that go something like this: "No charge as long as you plant ear corn and leave 16-20 rows until January 1" the end of our deer season (the reason I say almost free is sometimes there ain't much corn left). These fields are small (5-10 acres in size). I would say the average is $40 to $60, for comparison corn yields 110 to 160 bushel average. What can you expect with 8-10 inches of topsoil, as I have mentioned in other posts, the Glaciers left feet of Michigan's soil in Iowa I think.

Larry


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## Widairy (Jan 1, 2016)

In the pre 7$ corn years local rents were between 20 to 35 and acres. Now it runs from 75 to 250. I rent one farm from the neighbor 1/4 mile up the road. We are set for 75$ for next year but he wants more after that. Around here the yields are not there to justify the 100 plus dollar rents. Most guys can't consistently average much over 100 bushel corn and at least 1 year out of 5 you don't get good ripe corn, 30 percent moisture in December. Try making money drying that down. I don't understand how these guys figure things but there's always guys fighting for land.


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

Widairy said:


> I don't understand how these guys figure things but there's always guys fighting for land.


Spread loss across more acres (yea, bigger loss, but maybe less per acre and the banker could be happier). 

Larry


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Land rents in my area have dropped slightly.....row crops dry land is about $100-120, irrigated $300pa
Hay fields $50-90pa


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

somedevildawg said:


> Land rents in my area have dropped slightly.....row crops dry land is about $100-120, irrigated $300pa
> Hay fields $50-90pa


Who replaces and repairs the irrigation eq. landlord or tenant.


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

endrow said:


> In my surrounding area there is a fair amount of row crop land that is just average too good but not spectacular. The last couple years something happened that was kind of new to the area people put land up for bid. LOT OF small-time wannabes vintage land at $ 300 and got it cuz the Btos don't want to come back in this area the fields Farm too hard with the big equipment. Lady told me last night her tenants are now four months on behind with the rent and sent a Dear John Letter and asked if she would accept $100 per acre instead of $300 per acre. She said she liked when I farmed their land and she would gladly rent it to me again for $200 per acre without putting it on bid. .. well I never paid $200 for it before why would I pay $200 now. I did tell her we would talk about it and I had to think about it a little....... We had quite a few landowners call recently and we are negotiating with several. We did pick up a fair amount of land since the last growing season
> .


What do you think of this the lady who owns the land said she wants to get together with me back at the farm, I went back and meet her at the farm and the farmer that will /cannot ?pay the rent..Planted the whole farm in barley


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## Tim/South (Dec 12, 2011)

endrow said:


> What do you think of this the lady who owns the land said she wants to get together with me back at the farm, I went back and meet her at the farm and the farmer that will /cannot ?pay the rent..Planted the whole farm in barley


Is the current farmer going to be allowed to harvest the barley? Will he catch up on the rent after harvest?

The lady realizes she has messed up but that is her problem, not yours.

I would tell her that there are more people in her situation and you have secured more land and really do not need to add more at this time. No way would I pay $200 per acre when you have never paid that much in the past. She has renters who are months behind. She traded a person who paid on time for someone who does not pay at all.

Rather than being greedy she should have appreciated someone who farmer and paid to her liking. She will probably be hard pressed to find an unknown who will pay $100.

That is just my opinion and I am rather a hard case on something like this.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

endrow said:


> What do you think of this the lady who owns the land said she wants to get together with me back at the farm, I went back and meet her at the farm and the farmer that will /cannot ?pay the rent..Planted the whole farm in barley


Did she notify him about cancellation of the lease in writing?If the guy is a prick about it,it could get drug out legally and he might be able to farm it another yr.He shouldn't if he didnt pay the rent,but he could drag it out with a lawyer.She have a written lease or verbal?


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

swmnhay said:


> Did she notify him about cancellation of the lease in writing?If the guy is a prick about it,it could get drug out legally and he might be able to farm it another yr.He shouldn't if he didnt pay the rent,but he could drag it out with a lawyer.She have a written lease or verbal?


 I agree and I think that is exactly why he sowed the barley . We told her to get a lawyer and if she can get things straightened out give us a call.


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

Tim/South said:


> Is the current farmer going to be allowed to harvest the barley? Will he catch up on the rent after harvest?
> 
> The lady realizes she has messed up but that is her problem, not yours.
> 
> ...


In this neck of the woods we will not pay $200 it would be a good bit less


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## PaMike (Dec 7, 2013)

Down here, not far from you a lot of the big time guys act like you are robbing the landowner if you arent paying well over $200...


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## stack em up (Mar 7, 2013)

.


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## haybaler101 (Nov 30, 2008)

Yeah, 200 is entry level for junk here. BTO's offering 300+ yet for anything decent. One local one has 1400 acres in Kentucky now and was in Ohio last week trying to rent ground there. We are 80 miles from KY and over 150 from OH!


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## Lewis Ranch (Jul 15, 2013)

Cow Pasture rent here $15-30 an acre. Hay ground is anywhere from free on up to $20, I offered $60 for a place recently though witch is unheard of here.


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## IHCman (Aug 27, 2011)

Lewis Ranch said:


> Cow Pasture rent here $15-30 an acre. Hay ground is anywhere from free on up to $20, I offered $60 for a place recently though witch is unheard of here.


That sounds similar to here on the pasture and hay ground. Cropland in the sand we live in is anywhere from 30 to 50. Not far east of here where the land gets a little better I've heard of farmland up to 80.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

endrow said:


> Who replaces and repairs the irrigation eq. landlord or tenant.


Generally the tenant.......but many times the tenant owns the pivot.


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## PaMike (Dec 7, 2013)

No, Stack you don't want to move to this part of PA. Land is running about 25K/acre to buy...


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

haybaler101 said:


> Yeah, 200 is entry level for junk here. BTO's offering 300+ yet for anything decent. One local one has 1400 acres in Kentucky now and was in Ohio last week trying to rent ground there. We are 80 miles from KY and over 150 from OH!


 On our farm we do not try to compete with the people who only Farm high-end ground. Where I farm and north of me it's all pretty well shale gravel Base with with a shallow topsoil cover. There is a wide variation in the yield potential. Hopefully I did not cause someone to assume there is a lot of land in Pennsylvania that can be rented dirt cheap. 10 minutes south of me there is tons of land it's still crazy numbers 3 to $400, at one time they were going 5 to 6 crazy I'm not a member of that club I farm alot of entry-level junk.


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## pede58 (Oct 27, 2015)

WOW....25k for ground outside the grain belt, that's nuts for farm land. We had one 25acre piece sell for 16,5 but it had commercial potential, for the most part it's been hovering around 12,5.


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