I dont get ..

[Dave from MN]

why a previous renter would get so darn mad because a landowner decides to farm his own ground, rather than rent it out. You would think the previous renter would be glad because they always talked about how they never make any money on my land. I just dont understand the greed of some farmers that are farming 2000-4000 acres that they want discourage a landowner that has a 40 and wants to farm it. When you run thousands, is it really that big of a deal to give up a 40 from 4000? Walmart mentality has hit some farmers brains. There now I vented, I almost feel better. Like the song says, "This is my peice of dirt"! But I'll be darn if they dont plant so close that the survey markers are leaning in.

 

[Sparktrician]

Dave from MN, those kind of guys want every square inch they can get their hands on. We have the same type in SW Ohio. Bunch of B@stards, in my opinion. pay outrageous rent to get all the ground, then drive it in the ground, leave after a several years, and the farm is trash. Seen it over and over.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Hey Dave; Better check and see if they are just leaning or pushed back a few feet. I know what you mean, when I started farming mine I fought neighbors and previous renters for 2 years. One neighbor did move markers about 50 feet. A survey put them back, at my cost. Bob

 

[Anonymous-0]

It's called EGOnomics

 

[thurlow]

It's your farm; do what.....within the limits of the law........you want to with it. If I could play devil's advocate for a minute........I'm gonna guess the 'farmer' is making a living off the land (yours and other folks) and that you're not? People who don't make a living from the soil don't have a clue what his life is like
(nothing personal to Dave, obviously I don't know him and every dollar he gets may come directly from the soil).

 

[Anonymous-0]

what does he have invested in the land for this years crop? did he work it last fall? did he spread fertilizer last fall or this spring?what has he done as far as other work on the land?i have to give the guy that rents mine 2 crop years notice if i want it back. some guys put a lot in to the land the year before they plant working,limeing,fertilizing,stone picking,if he did anything to it you should get a bill for what he did anyway thats how it works around here. also what happens when crop prices drope and you don't want to loss your a-- and want to rent it out again good luck finding a renter

 

[Anonymous-0]

I have the samething going on here at home.The renter let the fense rows get wider every year.Then cryed that he was paying rent on acers he could not use.He never put lime or fertalizer on the ground.So,I took the ground away from him and payed the rent to my mother.Bought all the equipment that I need to farm with because you can't depend on anyone to do it for you.Even when you are willing to pay them..Payed off the last payment this week.It has been 3 years since I took over.Maybe I'll make a profit this year.If not,I'll keep going,because I do love farming.And,I get a big tax return every year.

 

[cadet trooper]

Dave, I can tell you one horror story after another from when I was an equipment dealer and of course in SW Ohio as Sparktrician mentioned I like that handle by the way. I'm not going to drag this out but I had a close friend of mine that owned and farmed about 240acres passed away suddenly from a massive heart attack at 43 years old his wife called me crying the evening it happened and of course I just figured she wanted to just talk about all the good times we had together but instead she said you know our neighbor called a few minutes ago and said I'm sorry to hear about your husband's passing but I would like to rent your ground this spring :-O She said I hung up on him it was all my wife could do to keep me from going down and beating the H*** out of him that very same fall I sold a new L2 to a farmer in the same neighborhood who rented 50acres out from under this POS and we had to replace his left side cab window about deck high from a 22 bullet hole he got when he went to lunch and he still thinks that this POS did it because they were running right across the road from each other that he couldn't prove but he confronted him later that day and he said hey, it's hunting season it could have been anyone with a smirk the POS got the crap beat out of him that night :->. I'm with you what's up with that?

 

[Jack a]

Dad rented his farm out about ten years ago and the first renters (although real nice people) begged to rip out all the fences and waterways. Dad gave in and the farm has never been the same. Besides the loss of character it lost a lot of top soil in those 4 years. They used a ripper about 20 to 24 inches deep and pulled up dead soil and rocks like I have never seen and on a waterway strip that he didn't let them rip out there were some boulders up to 2 feet tall that were buried with good black dirt from the field so deep that a plow won't touch those boulders today. The ground on the knolls looks lighter now from the clay that was pulled up and the soil loss.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Late 90s we had some financial problems, we had to sell the hay equipment among other things, to get some cash flow. It is only a 100 acre farm, but we had a fellow farmer bale the fields, give use hay and then keep the rest for himself. After about 5 years I bought some haying equipment. I told the guy that I was gonna start baleing our fieids again and he seemed really annoyed at me. Well never have heard from him again. lol

 

[VADAVE]

Talking about notice around here the landlord has to tell the farmer by September if he is taking the land back the next year. That is based on when the farmer would be getting ready for the following year. I lost a piece 2 years ago, or at least the landlord tried. He sold the ground the first of March and called me mid March to say "Gee I'm sorry I sold and you can't farm, I'll return your rent check" I called back and reminded them of the rule about telling me in September and that the bill would be rent plus what I had invested in lime and other ground prep. New and old owners real quick to decide I could farm that year. Guy who put the new owners up to it was a local farmer that wanted the piece. Remember every acre the farmer farms means X dollars of profit.

 

[Allan in NE]

There is no stronger insult in the world to a farmer than losing ground.

Allan

 

[Anonymous-0]

how in the world do you think it's the renters place to cut brush along the fence rows??? it's your land if it was a house and the well went dry should the renter drill a new one H no you do same with farm land. some of you sound like a bunch of slum lords just give me give me and don't put anything back. things must be different in other parts of the country but around here the land owner keeps stuff like fence rows and trees in check and if there are water ways like i have i maintain them and use the cost as a tax deduction as a expense

 

[Anonymous-0]

right on thats the way it should be

 

[Anonymous-0]

When my dad who was activly farming died suddenly at the age of 72, a neighbor asked to rent the farm at his funeral.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Oh no no. Around here the renter takes care the fence lines and mows the ditches unless the land owner wants hay for himself. There is more to farming then just planting and combining. If you want to farm this farm then you do every part of farming. (maintain fencelines, trim around ravines, mow ditches, maintain waterways, keep weeds down, keep fertility up) You are the farmer, not me.

 

[Keith in NW MO]

So do they get the hunting rights also, what about selling the logs?

 

[Mark-Mi]

Yea I have rented a couple farms where I have taken care of owners weed problems because they were to cheap to buy enough chemicals,got the fertility up where it should be,cut the brush out of their ditches.Then another family member our themselves took it back.Mark

 

[kyplowboy]

Around here tending a farm normaly means hunting rights too. Many farmers don't hunt all the ground they rent but most of the time the farmer gets first pick at hunting. If the land owner wants to lease or give out hunting rights it is worked out with the farmer.

As for the logs, if a farmer wants to take out a fence row, that goes on a case by case deal. That is worked out with the farmer and owner.

What was brought up here in this thread happens around here alot. We don't have many square fields. Alot of fields are full of dog legs and grown up thickets around seeps. Farmer Bob rents a farm. Goes around it with GPS, says it is 92 acres. Says he will rent it for 5 years at $200/acre. Comes in and farms it for 5 years and backs off the blackberry briers 3' a year and then says he is get'n screwed cause it only drills out 87 acres.

Saw a farm sell 2 years ago. I know the guy who had been tending it for years. It only had one 38 acre field. When he planted it with a 12 row drill, he made two passes around the out side for turn rows, that was a third of the field! People rent farms like that and back off a little here and there and it gets small quick.

Dave

 

[kyplowboy]

When granddad died, guy up the road brought a friend of his from town who was looking for a country place to buy out and drove him around our place before we got the food ate that people brought.

 

[RossIL]

Round here typically(almost always) fence rows, waterways upkeep and such are the responsibility of the tenant. Hunting rights are first dibs of the farmer unless specified otherwise. Tiling of course is the land lords responsibility. To me it's like renting a house: if the renter trashes it they're going to make it right.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Its the same way around here.Once they rent it they think they own it.They all claim they arent making a dollar but are out trying to rent every acre they can get their hands on.I rented from a family member and they would call and try and rent it away from me.

 

[dittmerku]

If you rented a house from someone, you'd have to mow the yard right? It's the same thing. We rent out our place and the farmer treats it like it was his own. We kept the hunting rights. He does all the upkeep. He does a real nice job too. in 10 years the rent has never gone up; never will if he keeps doing a nice job. All people ask is that you treat it as your own. Unfortunately, some people don't treat their own ground very well so I suppose that may not always be a good test. Kurt

 

[Dave from MN]

Just some more insight. 2 Years notice was given about not renting out. Weeds have become roundup resistant, ground is so hard pans that a normal disc would come up outa the ground like there was concrete down there. Min till and no till the last 3 years, was in a soil conserve program. I counted at least 8 dead furrows between the pond water and the feild, they are deep and will make it impossible to harvest the grass. Only way to fix it would be to burn it and disc the ground real good and reseed. Some ground that was promised to me, if I allowed to farm that last year, wasnt.