Farmland Leasing and Management Workshops Planned

Jul 09, 2024

By Ann Johanns

Iowa State University Extension and Outreach will host numerous farmland leasing and management workshops across the state in July and August, beginning July 29 in Waterloo and continuing through Aug. 28 in Keokuk County.

The annual meeting series is offered to address questions that landowners, tenants or other interested individuals have about leasing farmland. The average per-acre rent reported in the 2024 cash rental survey for Iowa is $279 for corn and soybeans and is the first time rates have not increased in five years.

Topics will include land values and cash rent trends, cost of production, methods for determining a fair rental rate, legislative updates regarding leases, including conservation in farmland lease arrangements, and communicating with tenants or landlords.

“More than half of Iowa’s farmland is rented, and strong landowner/tenant relationships are important for the long-term viability of Iowa’s valuable farmland,” said Ann Johanns, program specialist with ISU Extension and Outreach. “While the trend in rental rates is fairly steady, individual agreements vary. There are many aspects to farmland management beyond lease rates. Attending a workshop is a great way to learn more or ask questions on specific aspects of farm ownership and lease arrangements.”

Each workshop is designed to assist landowners, farm tenants and other agribusiness professionals with current issues related to farmland ownership, management and leasing arrangements. Attendees will gain a better understanding of current cash rental rate surveys and factors driving next year’s rents such as market trends and input costs.

Each registrant will receive a 100-page workbook with resources regarding land leasing agreements such as surveys, sample written lease agreements and termination forms, along with many other publications. The workbook may be included in the registration fee in some county meetings and available for purchase in others.

Attend a local meeting

The registration fee varies based on county, but is not more than $20-25 per person, and includes materials. Preregistration is encouraged and an additional $5 fee may be added if registering less than two calendar days before the meeting date. To register contact the ISU Extension and Outreach county office where the meeting is being held.

Virtual option

One live, virtual option will be offered Aug. 26, from 9-11:30 a.m., featuring three farm management field specialists. This is an opportunity for those who are unable to attend an in-person event, especially those out of state. The webinar registration fee is $20, and includes access to download an electronic (PDF) version of the handbook. Hard copies are only available through the in-person events.

The meetings are facilitated by farm management specialists with ISU Extension and Outreach. For the full list of locations, visit the Ag Decision Maker events page.

The Ag Decision Maker website also provides useful materials for negotiating leases, information on various types of leases, lease forms and newly updated Decision Tools.

Source : iastate.edu

Video: The 15-Year Bet Behind Every New Variety!

Canada is trying to decide how much agricultural research capacity it can afford to lose. Brian Rossnagel believes the better question is whether the country can afford to rebuild it.

The longtime barley and oat breeder makes the case with a simple fact about his profession: the consequences of today’s decisions may not become visible for 10 or 15 years.

“Pick the right parents. That’s the biggest thing,” Rossnagel says. “If you pick the wrong parents, you’re not going to get anywhere—and you don’t know that until 10 years, 15 years later.”

That warning carries particular weight as Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada moves to reduce spending and streamline parts of its science operations. The department’s 2026–27 plan anticipates the loss of approximately 665 positions by 2028–29 and says some research will be reduced where capacity exists in academia or industry. AAFC says the changes will make its science operations more cost-effective over the long term.

For Canada’s seed industry, Rossnagel’s career illustrates what is at stake.

This fall, the retired University of Saskatchewan breeder will be inducted into the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame. During his 35-year career at the Crop Development Centre, he helped develop more than 100 barley and oat varieties, including CDC Austenson—one of Western Canada’s most widely grown feed barleys. His induction recognizes not only those varieties, but the collaboration and research system that made them possible.

Rossnagel is quick to emphasize that none of it was the work of one person.

“The first thing I thought about was all the other people who contributed to whatever success I and my program had over the years,” he says. “We know that it’s not an individual who does this. It’s a group—a team.”

That team extends well beyond the breeder whose name appears beside a variety. It includes technicians, pathologists, quality specialists, statisticians, regional testing sites, seed growers and industry partners. It also includes the breeders who came before and those who will carry the germplasm forward.

CDC Fraser barley, for example, moved through three breeding careers. Its parents came from Brian Harvey’s program. Rossnagel advanced the material after Harvey retired, and Aaron Beattie later guided it through registration and release.

That kind of handoff is normal in plant breeding. The person who makes the original cross may never see the resulting variety reach farmers.

It also explains why lost research capacity cannot simply be switched back on when budgets improve.

“If you shut it off, it’s very, very difficult—and particularly costly—to start it up again,” Rossnagel says. “If you have to start from scratch, it’s going to be at least 10 years before anybody notices whether you’re getting anything done or not.”

The concern is not simply how many experimental lines Canada can process. Modern equipment, statistical tools and genetic technologies allow today’s breeding programs to evaluate tens of thousands of lines—far more than Rossnagel could handle when he entered the field in the early 1970s.

But efficiency and automation do not generate every idea.

“If you pare back down, and instead of having six or seven individual scientists concentrating on wheat breeding, you go down and say three people could handle all this, well, that’s half the ideas gone,” he says. “Particularly if you happen to lose the three people who had the really neat and innovative ideas, boy, that’s a problem.”

It is a timely distinction for Canadian agriculture. Consolidating programs may preserve the volume of material moving through a system, at least initially. It may not preserve the diversity of thinking, regional knowledge or willingness to pursue unconventional crosses.

That regional knowledge matters because Canadian agriculture is not one uniform production environment. A variety suited to southern Alberta may face different disease, moisture and maturity pressures than one grown in Manitoba, Ontario or Atlantic Canada.

“Agriculture is applied biology,” Rossnagel says. “Biology, all around the Earth, moves from the poles to the equator. It does not move from Newfoundland to B.C. like politics do.”