Landowner Series - Using a Flexible Cash Farm Lease

Nov 03, 2025

By Kevin Brooks

A flexible cash lease is an alternative to a straight cash lease. The flexible cash leash protects the farmer and landowner from economic loss. This type of lease can prevent a farmer from committing to a lease that requires a high guaranteed rent payment, allowing the landowner to have a higher return should profits increase during the production year. Both landowners and farm operators should consult a legal advisor before entering any lease agreement.

A flex-type lease sets a base rent based on known conditions. The farmer and the landowner are aware of the yield history based on records, such as reported yields for crop insurance purposes. They also know the current price for corn to be delivered at the local elevator in the fall of the upcoming growing season when the lease is signed. The USDA also projects anticipated crop prices. If yields and/or prices increase based on actual yields and prices, the rent, in the form of a bonus, also increases. The rent remains at the base level if the revenue doesn't increase or decrease.

Flex cash leases are nearly as popular as straight cash leases. The purpose of the flex rent is to protect the farmer from having to pay for an aggressive straight cash rent while allowing the landowner to have higher returns should the economic situation improve. In 2026, landowners are feeling pressure to lower cash rent levels in anticipation of financial loss to the farmer, and a flexible lease helps to diminish this pressure.

Source : illinois.edu

Video: Spring 2026 weather outlook for Wisconsin; What an early-arriving El Niño could mean

Northeast Wisconsin is a small corner of the world, but our weather is still affected by what happens across the globe.

That includes in the equatorial Pacific, where changes between El Niño and La Niña play a role in the weather here -- and boy, have there been some abrupt changes as of late.

El Niño and La Niña are the two phases of what is collectively known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO for short. These are the swings back and forth from unusually warm to unusually cold sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean along the equator.

Since this past September, we have been in a weak La Niña, which means water temperatures near the Eastern Pacific equator have been cooler than usual. That's where we're at right now.

Even last fall, the long-term outlook suggested a return to neutral conditions by spring and potentially El Niño conditions by summer.

But there are some signs this may be happening faster than usual, which could accelerate the onset of El Niño.

Over the last few weeks, unusually strong bursts of westerly winds farther west in the Pacific -- where sea surface temperatures are warmer than average -- have been observed. There is a chance that this could accelerate the warming of those eastern Pacific waters and potentially push us into El Niño sooner than usual.

If we do enter El Nino by spring -- which we'll define as the period of March, April and May -- there are some long-term correlations with our weather here in Northeast Wisconsin.

Looking at a map of anomalously warm weather, most of the upper Great Lakes doesn't show a strong correlation, but in general, the northern tiers of the United States do tend to lean to that direction.

The stronger correlation is with precipitation. El Niño conditions in spring have historically come with a higher risk of very dry weather over that time frame, so this will definitely be a transition we'll have to watch closely as we move out of winter.